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MEMCAL    ^ClnI©(S)L 


ALCOHOL: 


ITS  PLACE  AND  POWER 


BY 

JAMES    MILLER, 

PROFESSOR  OF  SURGERY   IN  THJE  UNIVERSITT  OF  EDINBUEOH, 

SURGEON   IN  ORDINARY  TO  THE  QUEEN  FOR  SCOTLAND, 

ETC.  ETC. 


FROM     THE 
NINETEENTH  GLASGOW   EDITIOl 


PHILADELPHIA : 
LIFPSAJ    &    BLAKISTON 


CONTENTS. 


PAOB 

INTRODUCTION 13 

ALCOHOL:    ITS  PLACE. 

I. — As  A  Poisox 24 

II. — As  A  Medicine 42 

IIL— As  Food 62 

IV.— As  A  Luxury 79 

ALCOHOL:    ITS  POWEPw. 

I. — As  A  Poison 94 

ll. — As  A  Medicine 96 

IIL— As  Food 99 

IV. — As  A  Condiment 100 

V. — As  A  Luxury 101 

VI. — As  A  Support  in  Labor  of  the  Body lOG 

VII. — As  A  Support  in  Labor  op  the  Mind 118 

VIII. — As  A  Support  in  Enduring  Cold 130 

IX. — As  A  Support  in  Enduring  Heat 138 

X. — As  A  Means  of  Averting  Disease 146 

XL— As  A  Means  of  Producing  Disease 151 

XII. — As  A  Means  of  Cherishing  Age 153 

XIIL— As  a  Means  of  Prolonging  Life 157 

XIV. — As  Affecting  the  Mind 158 

XV. — As  AN  Instrument  op  Vice 161 

XVL— As  A  Special  Opponent  to  Moral  Reformation    .  168 

XVII. — In  Clinging  to  its  Victim 169 

Conclusion 170 


(^i) 


INTRODUCTION. 


Drunkenness  owns  many  a  cause,  and  calls  for  many 
a  cure.  Many  things  are  to  be  done,  and  many  men 
are  needed  to  do  them.  The  principle  of  '^  division  of 
labor"  is  fully  recognised  in  this  matter. 

One  of  the  most  obvious  causes  of  drunkenness  con- 
sists in  the  strange  drinking  customs  of  the  people. 
Strong  drink  not  only  forms  a  customary  part  of  their 
ordinary  diet,  but  whenever  any  peculiar  occasion  emerges 
—  be  it  of  grief  or  sorrow,  business  or  pleasure  —  an 
additional  amount  of  strong  drink  must  forthwith  be 
consumed,  by  all  and  sundry,  if  the  entertainer  would 
escape  censure  or  contempt. 

Sensible  men  have  come  to  see  that  if  drunkenness  is 
to  be  stayed  in  its  fearful  sweep,  carrying  death  and 
devastation  in  its  track,  these  drinking  customs  must  be 
greatly  reformed;  and  means  have  accordingly  been 
adopted  to  enlighten  the  public  mind  on  the  sad  mix- 
ture of  folly  and  evil  which  characterizes  them.  Good 
work  has  been  done  in  this  direction.  Able  authors 
have  expounded  the  case  plainly  and  powerfully;  and 
reference  may  be  specially  made  to  "The  Physiology 
of  Temperance  and  Total  Abstinence,"  by  Dr.  Carpenter, 
and  *'  The  Pathology  of  Drunkenness,"  by  Dr.  Charles 
Wilson.  Both  of  these  treatises  are  excellent;  telling 
and  trustworthy.     But  a  desire  has  been  expressed  for 

(13) 


14 


INTRODUCTION. 


a  more  homely  exposition  of  the  matter,  and  one  more 
readily  accessible  to  the  popular  hand  and  mind.  An- 
other workman,  accordingly,  is  needed  for  this  particular 
department;  and  I  have  not  felt  at  liberty  to  decline  the 
call  addressed  to  me.  The  whirl  of  many  important 
avocations,  the  inevitable  inroads  on  such  snatches  of 
leisure  and  relaxation  as  may  be  possible  in  such  a  life 
as  mine,  might  have  been  pleaded  as  ground  for  a  refusal. 
But  perhaps  such  excuses  are  in  most  cases  sufficiently 
met  by  the  common  proverby  "Where  there's  a  will 
there 's  a  way."  And  having  a  sincere  and  hearty  "  will " 
to  help  on  the  good  cause  of  temperance,  I  have  not 
sought  the  shelter  of  any  such  plea,  but  rather  am  con- 
tent to  find  and  ferret  out  the  "way." 

Like  apologetics  might  now  be  urged  on  you,  gentle 
reader,  deprecating  your  harsh  criticism,  and  craving  a 
generous  forbearance  in  regard  to  a  task  hastily  and  im- 
perfectly done.  But  even  here  I  would  be  silent  — ■ 
satisfied  that  whatever  failings  may  mar  the  attempt,  the 
motives  which  led  to  it  were  honest,  disinterested,  and 
sincere.  Throw  aside  prejudice  —  for  a  time  sheathe 
your  critical  acumen  —  give  me  your  patient  attention, 
and,  however  much  I  may  now  and  then  unintentionally 
ofi"end  in  minor  points,  I  hope  to  convince  you  that  three- 
fourths  of  the  men  and  women  of  Scotland  are  ill-informed 
in  this  vital  matter,  and  daily  reaping  most  disastrous 
fruits  of  this  ignorance,  in  both  themselves  and  others 


A  short  preliminary  statement  must  be  made,  giving 
a  general  idea  of  the  more  ordinary  functions  of  the 
human  body  in  health. 


INTRODUCTION.  15 

Every  function  of  the  living  man  —  whether  thinking 
by  help  of  his  brain,  for  example,  or  working  by  means' 
of  his  muscles,  or  secreting  through  the  agency  of  his 
glands,  produces  a  corresponding  disintegration  of  the 
appropriate  structure;  a  certain  amount  of  nervous, 
muscular,  or  secreting  tissue  crumbles  down,  and,  for 
the  time  being,  is  rendered  useless  to  the  living  economy ; 
and,  besides,  its  presence  any  longer  —  at  least  in  that 
condition  —  would  prove  hurtful.  A  two-fold  action  is 
required :  first,  to  supply  renewal  for  the  waste ;  and 
second,  to  have  the  wasted  material  suitably  removed. 
The  latter  object  is  accomplished  by  the  blood,  which, 
by  the  help  of  veins  and  absorbents,  receives  the  used 
up  stuff  into  its  backward  or  venous  current,  for  the 
purpose  of  consuming  part  by  the  action  of  oxygen  in 
the  lungs,  and  disposing  of  what  remains  by  means  of 
the  organs  of  excretion  —  the  liver,  bowels,  skin,  and 
kidneys.  The  renewing  supply  of  the  waste,  from  tear 
and  wear,  on  the  other  hand,  is  performed  by  the  arte- 
rial blood,  in  its  onward  current  throughout  the  frame. 
Filtering  through  very  minute  and  numerous  vessels, 
called  capillaries,  it  allows  that  portion  of  it  which  is 
needful  to  compensate  for  the  ever-recurring  loss  to 
escape,  and  come  in  contact  with  and  be  applied  to  the 
parts  which  need  it.  The  waste  is  constant  —  greater 
according  to  the  amount  of  exertion  made,  but  always 
more  or  less ;  and  the  supply  must  not  only  be  constant 
too,  and  proportional  in  amount,  but  also  of  a  certain 
quality.  Send  venous  blood  to  muscle,  and  you  mar 
both  its  structure  and  its  working.  Do  the  like  by  the 
brain,  and  the  result  is  similar ;  you  disorder  its  function 


16  INTRODUCTION. 

invariably,  and  may  easily  enough  silence  it  for  ever. 
To  nourish,  blood  must  be  arterial.  Having  nourished, 
it  becomes  venous  —  not  only  useless  but  noxious  to  the 
organs  that  need  nourishment,  and  fit  only  to  be  sent 
back  through  the  liver  and  lungs,  there  to  undergo  such 
changes  of  giving  and  taking  as  shall  once  more  qualify 
it  for  its  work  of  supply.  In  this  backward  course,  as 
already  said,  it  receives  and  is  mingled  with  the  used-up 
material,  whose  loss  its  next  wave  has  to  compensate. 
And  whatever  tends  to  send  on  this  doubly-defiled  cur- 
rent over  the  whole  body,  with  an  imperfect  performance 
of  the  purifying  process  —  technically  called  depuration 

—  must  inevitably  cause  most  serious  interference  with 
health  and  longevity. 

But  the  blood  is  not  a  mere  circling  fluid,  '^  self-con- 
tained." In  every  circuit  it  makes,  it  looses  largely, 
both  in  quality  and  quantity;  and  its  loss  must  be  made 
up.  This  is  done  through  the  stomach.  Food  is  taken 
in  there,  masticated,  softened,  and  mixed  up,  so  as  to  be 
in  a  state  of  suspension  and  solution.     The  gastric  juice 

—  or  pecuHar  secretion  of  the  stomach  —  mingles  with 
it;  and  the  digestion  is  carried  on,  as  if  in  a  stew-pan. 
Having  become  a  pulpy  fluid,  called  cliyme,  the  food 
moves  slowly  into  the  alimentary  canal ;  there  it  receives 
farther  additions  —  bile  from  the  liver,  and  juice  from 
the  pancreas  or  sweet-bread ;  the  nutritious  portion,  called 
vhyhy  is  taken  up  by  the  absorbents,  whose  various  tubes 
concentrate  into  one  common  duct;  and  this  empties  its 
contents  into  the  venous  returning  blood,  just  before  it 
begins  its  purifying  circuit  through  the  lungs.  So  the 
feeder  is  fed. 


INTRODUCTION.  17 

But  some  things — alcoliol  happens  to  be  one,  and  the 
poison  of  asps  another — are  impatient  of  so  round-about  a 
journey;  they  must  be  conveyed  to  the  blood  at  once.  They 
will  not  wait  to  be  digested ;  but,  taken  up  as  they  are 
])y  the  veins  of  the  stomach,  are  carried  —  little  if  at  all 
changed  —  into  the  general  venous  circulation,  and  do 
their  work  there,  whatever  it  may  be,  with  almost  in- 
stantaneous rapidity. 

What  takes  place  ordinarily  in  the  lungs  requires  a 
little  special  consideration.  The  blood  having  suffered 
exhaustion  and  loss  in  its  work  of  nourishing  all  the 
various  parts  of  the  body,  having  received  a  supply  it 
greatly  needed  from  the  stomach  and  bowels,  in  the  form 
of  chyle  —  as  a  help ;  and  having  got  also,  what  in  some 
respects  it  might  have  seemed  to  have  been  better  with- 
out, the  used-up  material  refuse  of  life  and  working — as 
a  burthen,  —  it  passes  by  the  right  side  of  the  heart 
through  the  lungs ;  and  in  the  cell-like  ramifications  of 
these,  it  is  brought  in  all  its  motley  mass  into  contact 
with  the  air,  which  for  that  purpose  has  been  taken  in 
by  the  wind-pipe.  This  air  parts  with  its  oxygen;  a 
large  proportion  of  which  unites  with  carbon  and  hydro- 
gen in  the  blood  —  carbonic  acid  and  watery  vapor  being 
extricated  in  consequence.  This  important  change, 
chemically  called  oxidation,  is  really  a  burning.  Though 
not  accompanied  by  light  or  flame,  it  is,  like  ordinary 
combustion,  productive  of  heat;  and,  in  consequence,  it 
will  be  readily  understood  that  the  process  of  respiration, 
when  duly  performed,  fulfils  two  important  objects  — 
aerating  the  blood,  and  at  the  same  time  helping  to  main- 
tain the  due  temperature  of  the  body. 


18  INTRODUCTION. 

But  what  is  it  that  is  thus  oxidized,  or  burnt,  by  the 
breathed  air?  Two  things.  Th-e  used-up  material  of 
the  structures,  returned  in  the  venous  circulation,  is 
either  burnt  off,  or  so  modified  as  to  be  converted  into 
the  most  suitable  forms  for  final  expulsion  from  the  blood. 
The  greater  part  is  thrown  off  in  the  form  of  carbonic 
acid  and  watery  vapor,  while  the  rest,  imperfectly  oxi- 
dated, moves  on  into  the  general  circulation,  to  be  dealt 
with  exhaustively  in  the  lungs  on  its  next  transit,  or  to 
be  disposed  of  by  the  liver,  bowels,  skin,  and  kidneys. 
This  treatment  of  the  "waste"  is  essential,  and  must  be 
done.  But  the  doing  of  it  is  not  enough,  of  itself,  to 
maintain  the  general  temperature.  And  so  a  portion  of 
food,  digested  in  the  stomach,  and  received  by  the  blood 
as  chyle,  is  specially  devoted  to  the  process  of  burning 
too ;  that  portion  consisting  of  such  articles  of  diet  as 
contain  no  nitrogen :  oil  and  sugar  being  special  examples. 

In  this  wondrous  living  factory  of  ours,  the  waste  ma- 
terial is  not  only  burned  off —  as  farmers  do  "  wrack " 
on  the  surface  of  their  fields  —  there  is  besides  a  special 
heating  apparatus  constantly  at  work;  and  so,  by  the 
two-fold  process,  the  blood  is  purified  of  its  hurtful  matter, 
while  the  whole  frame  is  maintained  in  its  due  heat. 
Let  either  part  of  this  process  flag,  and  evil  must  ensue. 
Burn  off  all  the  blood's  impurity,  yet  have  an  insufficient 
supply  of  extra  fuel  from  the  stomach  —  the  body  must 
grow  cold.*     Send  an  inordinate  amount  of  peculiarly 

*  It  is  not  alleged  that  the  whole  of  the  heating  process  is  done  in 
the  lungs.  On  the  contrary,  there  is  good  reason  to  suppose  (as  will 
immediately  be  stated,)  that  every  act  of  nutrition  and  disintegration 
of  tissue  throughout  the  body— every  change  from  fluid  to  solid,  and 


I 


INTRODUCTION.  19 

combustible*  material  from  the  stomach,  so  that  it  shall 
do  almost  all  the  burning  —  then  the  blood's  impurity 
cannot  be  sufficiently  consumed ;  venous  blood  will  come 
to  circulate  more  or  less,  instead  of  arterial;  and  the 
most  serious  consequences  cannot  fail  to  happen.  The 
kidneys,  and  skin,  and  liver,  will  make  great  exertions, 
no  doubt  —  as  excretory  organs  —  to  throw  out  the  evil 
thus  forced  through  the  system ;  but  they  will  not  wholly 
succeed ;  and  they  themselves  will  suffer  injury  in  the 
strain.  The  blood  will  remain  impure,  important  organs 
of  the  body  will  be  thrown  into  a  state  of  disorder,  and 
disease  of  a  serious  kind  may  be  established. 

But  the  whole  of  the  oxygen  taken  in  by  the  lungs  is 
not  thus  accounted  for.  About  a  fourth  passes  into  the 
system,  with  the  blood,  without  being  spent  at  all  on 
oxidation  of  the  "waste."  This  portion  of  the  oxygen 
cannot  well  be  traced  in  its  course ;  but  there  is  good 

from  solid  to  fluid  —  is  accompanied  with  disengagement  of  caloric. 
But  obviously  while  much  of  the  "oxidation"  is  done  in  the  lungs, 
almost  all  the  oxygen  enters  hy  the  lungs,  whereby  the  "  oxidation," 
or  burning  is  performed. 

*  Whether  it  be  because  alcohol  is  "iieculiarly  combustible,"  or 
not,  may  not  be  quite  determined ;  but  Prout  and  others  have  expe- 
rimentally ascertained  that  less  carbonic  acid  than  usual  is  evoked 
during  the  presence  of  alcohol  in  the  blood,  and  that  that  fluid  is 
decidedly  darker  than  in  persons  untainted  by  the  "poison."  It 
would  almost  seem  as  if  alcohol,  circulating  in  the  blood,  to  a  con- 
siderable extent  suspended,  for  the  time,  the  chemico-vital  processes 
proper  to  the  fluid  in  its  normal  state.  Thus  the  oxidation  of  the 
phosphorus  of  waste  tissue  is  sometimes  so  interrupted  by  alcohol, 
that  the  body  of  the  drunkard  smells  of  phosphorus,  his  breath  pre- 
sents a  visible  phosphorence,  and  his  urine  is  luminous  in  the  dark. 
As  will  afterwards  be  seen,  this  is  the  only  luminosity  which  alcohol 
imparts  to  the  debauchee. 


20  INTRODUCTION. 

reason  to  believe  that  it  acts  an  important  part  in  the 
change  of  the  nutritious  part  of  the  arterial  blood  into 
living  tissue  —  supplying  renewal  for  the  "waste;"  and 
that  it  is  again  active  in  the  crumbling  down  of  that 
tissue  —  constituting  the  "  waste ; "  in  both  actions  evol- 
ving caloric.  And  so  here  is  a  third  way  of  maintaining 
the  general  temperature. 

A  word  as  to  the  action  of  poisons.  Applied  to  a  part, 
poisons  have  various  effects.  Some,  like  potass,  acids, 
and  other  caustics,  destroy  all  structure;  others,  like 
alcohol  and  ammonia,  irritate  and  inflame;  others,  as 
prussic  acid,  impress  mainly  the  nerves. 

The  constitutional  effect  is  also  various.  The  poison, 
more  or  less  rapidly  absorbed  into  the  blood,  might  be 
circulated  equably  over  the  whole  system.  According 
to  a  strange  law,  however,  such  diffusion  does  not  occur; 
but,  on  the  contrary,  certain  poisons  seek  out  certain 
parts,  and  act  on  them  primarily  and  chiefly  —  drawn 
thither  by  a  vital,  as  if  by  a  chemical  attraction.  Tobacco, 
digitalis,  and  the  upas  poison,  for  example,  act  specially 
upon  the  heart ;  arsenic  affects  the  bowels,  and  mucous 
membranes  in  general ;  cantharides,  the  kidneys ;  iodine, 
the  glands ;  strychnia,  the  spinal  cord  ;  alcohol,  opium, 
and  all  narcotics,  the  brain. 

Some  kill  directly  and  at  once ;  others  more  remotely, 
by  the  induction  of  secondary  disease. 

Some  exert  definite  effects,  dose  by  dose ;  others  pro- 
duce their  special  results  only  after  frequent  and  con- 
tinued repetition. 

Some  produce  continuous  results ;  others,  as  the  ma- 
laria, afford  intervals  of  apparent  immunity. 


ALCOHOL:  ITS  PLACE 


*'  Let  everything  have  a  place,  and  everything  be  in 
its  place."  This  is  a  good  old  Scottish  maxim,  pregnant 
with  both  thrift  and  wisdom.  And  had  it  but  its  full 
sway  over  the  common  household  thing  whose  ominous 
name  heads  the  page,  the  world  were  many  times  fairer, 
richer,  and  better,  than  it  is  this  day. 

But  in  order  to  put  and  keep  anything  in  its  proper 
place,  we  must  ascertain  and  determine  what  that  place  is. 
And,  accordingly,  let  us  at  once  proceed  to  make  some 
inquiry  in  this  direction,  so  far  as  alcohol  is  concerned. 

Under  the  term  "  alcohol,"  is  included,  let  it  be  dis- 
tinctly understood,  every  kind  of  intoxicating  drink. 
All  the  varieties  of  spirits,  wines,  and  malt  liquors,  are 
the  same  as  to  their  intoxicating  quality;  that  invariably 
depends  upon  the  presence  of  alcohol.  This  may  be 
more  or  less  diluted,  mixed,  colored,  and  flavored ;  or, 
as  in  the  case  of  malt  liquors,  combined  with  a  small 
quantity  of  nutritive  material;*  but  it  is  always  pre- 
sent, and  according  to  its   amount  is  the  intoxicating 

*"  Very  small  in  the  best  of  them,  especially  if  you  exclude  the  sac- 
charine stuflFs.  For,  according  to  Liebig,  suppose  a  man  to  consume, 
daily,  eight  or  ten  quarts  of  "  the  best  Bavarian  beer,"  he  will  obtain 
from  it  in  the  course  of  twelve  months,  no  more  than  the  same  quan- 
tity of  nutritive  constituents  contained  in  a  five-pound  loaf  of  bread. 

(21) 


22  alcohol:     ITS    PLACE. 

power  of  the  beverage.  A  man  is  apt  to  draw  a  broad 
distinction  —  greatly  in  his  own  favor  —  between  him- 
self drinking  beer  and  another  drinking  brandy,  as  a 
daily  habit;  but  the  truth  is,  that  both  are  drinking  the 
same  thing,  only  in  a  different  guise  and  dilution; 
chemically  and  practically,  there  is  much  the  same  dif- 
ference as  between  one  who  drinks  spirits  "  neat"  and 
another  who  drinks  his  allowance  of  the  same  thing 
largely  "watered."  The  one  drinks  alcohol  slightly 
diluted;  the  other  drinks  alcohol  much  diluted,  and 
somewhat  modified  by  flavor;  but  both  are  drinking 
alcohol.  Not  a  day  passes  but  you  may  hear,  "  I  am 
no  drinker ;  for  years  I  have  never  tiJuched  spirits ;  I 
take  nothing  but  wine."  The  man  who  so  expresses 
himself  may  be  in  the  habit  of  taking  his  pint  of  sherry, 
or  quart  of  claret,  daily,  or  all  but  daily;  and,  while 
honestly  convinced  that  he  is  touching  no  "  spirits,"  is 
really  swallowing  the  same  amount  of  alcohol  as  if  he 
had  taken  a  glass  or  two  of  raw  brandy  or  whisky  instead. 
He  believes  that  spirits  are  injurious;  he  would  not 
take  them  for  the  world ;  yet  all  the  while  he  is  taking 
them ;  and  surely  it  is  of  great  importance  that  he  should 
be  undeceived.  Let  it  be  well  understood  then,  at 
starting,  that  all  intoxicating  beverages  contain  alcohol, 
as  their  characteristic  and  essential  ingredient;  and  how- 
ever they  may  vary  in  taste  or  appearance,  their  chemi- 
cal constitution  as  intoxicants  is  practically  the  same. 
Beer,  no  doubt,  is  less  hurtful  than  brandy — wine  less 
dangerous  than  whisky;  but  chiefly  because  they  contain 
less  alcohol. 

And  what  is  this  alcohol  ?    Whether  pure  or  diluted, 


alcohol:    ITS    PLACE.  23 

v,'bere  should  it  stand  in  the  arrangement  of  things  ? 
As  a  poison  ?  As  a  medicine  ?  An  article  of  food,  or 
of  luxury  ?  In  a  household  we  can  readily  imagine  — 
say  in  a  hotel  —  a  long  list  of  articles  of  diet  fit  and 
offered  for  use ;  a  medicine-chest,  too,  with  a  carefully- 
arranged  catalogue  of  its  contents ;  and  hung  up  in  some 
conspicuous  spot,  for  readiness  of  access  in  emergencies, 
perhaps  a  tabular  list  of  the  most  common  poisons,  with 
short  and  simple  rules  for  their  counteraction.  Into 
which  of  these  lists  ought  alcohol  to  go  ?  The  question 
is  not,  How  do  men  generally  consider  it,  and  in  what 
category  is  it  placed?  That  were  easily  answered  — 
though  somewhat  unsatisfactorily.  Most  men  call  it 
food^  and  use  it  daily  as  such,  in  some  form  or  other. 
Others  esteem  it  a  luxury;  and  their  use  of  it  accord- 
ingly is  but  occasional.  A  few  regard  it  medicinally, 
and  are  ready  to  give  it  a  high  character  as  an  assuager 
of  the  ills  of  life  —  all  but  a  panacea.  Few,  very  few, 
ever  dream  of  it  being  a  poison. 

Let  us  see  how  the  truth  lies.  Can  it  be  that  men 
are  using  as  an  article  of  food,  daily  and  freely,  what  is 
essentially  a  poison  ?  In  cooking,  were  an  appreciable 
amount  of  verdigris  from  the  pot  or  pan  to  be  mingled 
with  their  stews  and  boils ;  in  their  tea  and  coffee,  were 
the  water  to  contain  a  grave  proportion  of  lead  from  the 
pipe  or  cistern;  in  the  flavoring  of  the  sweet  course, 
were  the  ratafia  to  give  out  a  decided  quantity  of  prussic 
acid,  —  the  effects  would  tell,  inquiry  would  be  made, 
and  the  contamination  would  be  avoided.  And  can  it 
be  that  men  are  daily  mingling  with  their  food,  in  no 
niggard   amount,  what   is   as   truly   poisonous    as   the 


24  alcohol:  ITS  place. 

prussic  acid,  copper,  or  lead  —  taking  little  note  of  its 
evil  effects,  and  taking  no  means  to  remove  the  adulte- 
ration ?     Let  us  see.  r 

alcohol  as  a  poison. 

ALcdhol  IS  a  poison.  In  chemistry  and  physiology, 
this  is  its  proper  place. 

Many  readers  may  receive  this  dogmatic  assertion 
with  a  "  Pooh,  pooh  " — "  Fanaticism  and  folly  " — "  We 
know  better."  Let  me  support  the  assertion,  therefore, 
"by  authority.  "  The  sedative  action  of  alcohol  on  the 
brain,"  says  Christison  —  and  we  know  no  higher  autho- 
rity, either  as  regards  poisons  or  the  articles  of  the 
materia  medica  —  "  constitutes  it  a  powerful  narcotic 
poison.  For  its  effects  as  such,  if  rapidly  brought  on 
by  a  large  dose,  there  is  no  antidote  Icnown  —  the  only 
efficacious  treatment  consisting  of  speedy  evacuation 
of  the  stomach,  and  the  employment  of  brisk  external 
stimuli." 

Now  let  us  inquire  as  to  the  effects  of  this  formidable 
agent.  Obviously,  they  will  vary  according  to  the  age 
and  condition  of  the  recipient,  and  especially  according 
to  the  manner  and  amount  of  the  administration. 

I.  Alcohol  absolutely  pure  is  seldom  if  ever  taken 
internally.  To  make  it  at  all  tolerable  to  the  stomach, 
it  must  be  diluted ;  and  the  strongest  brandy,  whisky,  or 
other  "spirit,"  contains  a  large  proportion  of  water  — 
thirty,  forty,  or  fifty  per  cent. 

But  though  thus  modified,  a  large  quantity  in  the 
adult,  or  a  small  quantity  in  the  child,  may  prove  rapidly 
fatal.     It  is  almost  at  once  absorbed  by  the  veins  of  the 


ALCOHOL    AS    A    POISON.  25 

stomach,  and,  mixing  with  the  blood,  is  carried  to  all 
parts  of  the  body,  aflFecting  certain  of  these  very  spe- 
cially —  namely,  the  nervous  centres.*  These  are  para- 
lyzed ;  the  heart  stops,  and  life  ceases.  A  man  quaffs 
a  quart  of  brandy  almost  at  a  draught,  tumbles  down, 
and  dies  on  the  spot.  The  shock  of  the  large  dose  of 
alcohol  on  his  nervous  system,  with  which  it  is  almost 
immediately  brought  into  direct  contact  through  ab- 
sorption into  the  blood,  acts  like  a  blow  on  the  head,  or 
a  kick  on  the  stomach.    Prussic  acid  is  not  more  deadly. 

To  obtain  some  idea  of  the  rapidity  with  which  alcohol 
dashes  through  every  obstacle  to  reach  the  brain  —  the 
material  organ  of  reason,  and  the  special  object  of  the 
poison  when  once  it  gains  access  to  the  body — consider 
the  following  experiment  of  Dr.  Percy:  —  He  injected 
about  two  ounces  and  a  half  of  alcohol  into  the  stomach 
of  a  dog,  and  the  animal  dropped  dead  almost  instanta- 
neously. As  soon  thereafter  as  he  could  remove  the 
brain  —  an  operation  which  occupied  only  a  few  minutes 
— and  place  it  in  an  apparatus  for  distillation,  he  by  that 
process  extracted  from  it  a  notable  quantity  of  the  alco- 
hol—  more  than  from  an  equal  weight  of  any  other  part 
of  the  body,  or  of  the  blood  itself. 

II.  But  the  dose  may  not  be  such  as  to  kill  at  once 
by  shock.  The  bottle,  we  shall  suppose,  is  consumed 
more  leisurely,  and  by  and  by  the  man  is  found  in  a 
state  closely  resembling  apoplexy — with  suffused  face, 

*  "  I  can't  drink  spirits,  or  even  wine ;  it  goes  to  my  head.  I  find 
it  instantly  go  to  my  head."  The  words  are  right,  literally,  as  well 
as  metaphorically,  though  the  speaker  thinks,  perhaps,  only  of  the 
latter  sense. 


20  ALCOHOL:    ITS    PLACE. 

laboring  pulse,  heavy,  noisy  breathing,  and  total  insen 
sibility.  What  has  happened?  The  alcohol  absorb' 
has  reached  the  nervous  centres  as  before,  and  has 
but  paralyzed  their  functions ;  in  consequence,  the  hea: 
and  lungs  are  both  acting  most  imperfectly;  the  blood 
is  failing  to  receive  its  due  proportion  of  oxygen  in  its 
oozy  passage  through  the  lungs,  and  is,  besides,  directly 
altered  for  the  worse  by  the  alcohol's  actual  presence  in 
it.  The  man  is  choking  gradually,  as  if  with  a  rope 
round  his  neck,  or  a  clot  of  blood  in  his  brain.  The 
hand  of  alcohol  is  on  his  throat;  breathing  becomes 
slower  and  slower,  the  heart  beats  more  and  more  faintly, 
the  body  grows  cold,  and,  in  no  long  time,  all  is  still  in 
death. 

Peculiar  circumstances  may  render  such  an  event  pos- 
sible under  even  a  comparatively  small  dose.  Ordinary 
"intoxication"  may  not  have  occurred,  yet  the  alcohol 
may  so  injuriously  determine  to  and  act  on  the  brain, 
as  to  cause  congestive  apoplexy,  modified  by  symptoms 
of  poisoning.  And  under  this  life  may  give  way,  as  in 
the  following  case:  —  A  gentleman  supped  out,  drank 
several  tumblers  of  toddy,  came  home,  and  went  to  bed. 
In  the  morning  he  was  found  insensible.  A  physician, 
hurriedly  called,  at  once  recognised  the  symptoms  as 
those  of  narcotic  poisoning,  and  treated  the  patient  ac- 
cordingly. Reaction  began,  but  failed,  and  death  occurred 
within  a  few  hours.  On  dissection,  no  organic  lesion  or 
other  cause  of  death  was  detected.  The  contents  of  the 
stomach  were  carefully  secured,  and  made  over  to  the 
care  of  a  skilful  chemist.  Morphia  was  suspected,  but 
nothing  could  be  found  —  save  alcohol. 


ALCOHOL    AS    A    POISON.  27 

III.  In  the  first  class  of  cases,  death  is  as  by  shock  j, 
in  the  second,  by  coma;  and  examples  of  both  are  by  co 
means  rare.  There  is  a  third  class,  however,  far  more 
numerous.  The  man  is  stronger,  the  dose  is  less,  or  more 
slowly  taken;  and,  after  a  heavy  stupor — far  more  deep 
and  dangerous  than  ordinary  sleep — the  drunkard  slowly 
evinces  signs  of  returning  consciousness.  He  has  been 
"  dead  drunk,''  and  all  but  dead  actually.  The  choking 
was  begun  and  going  on  as  before  3  but,  fortunately,  the 
poisoning  "  took  a  turn,"  and  the  poison  itself  having 
been  more  or  less  rapidly  thrown  out  of  the  system  by 
the  organs  of  excretion,  as  well  as  burnt  off  in  the  lungs, 
the  brain  lightens,  and  the  conditions  of  life  are  restored. 
Gradually  the  man  returns  to  something  like  his  wonted 
self,  but  retaining  many  a  plain  trace  of  his  narrow 
escape.  He  was  all  but  poisoned.  What  did  it  ?  Al- 
cohol. Had  he  died,  you  might  have  found,  on  dissec- 
tion, in  him  as  well  as  in  each  of  the  former  victims,  the 
alcohol  unchanged,  not  only  in  the  general  mass  of  blood, 
but  specially  in  the  substance  of  the  brain  —  a  texture 
for  which  it  has  a  peculiar  affinity. 

These  are  examples  of  plain  poisoning  —  a  common 
word,  which  carries  an  alarming  sound ;  but  put  it  into 
a  classical  shape,  and,  strangely,  it  seems  much  less 
formidable.  "Was  he  poisoned f  "Oh,,  no;  only 
intoxicated.'"  And  yet,  literally,  the  words  mean  the 
same  thing. 

IV.  Intoxication  !  We  need  not  describe  what  every 
one  has  seen,  and  not  a  few  have  felt.  Let  us,  however, 
trace  the  action  of  the  agent  in  this  too  common  variety 
of  alcohol's  effects.     Reaching  the  brain,  more  gradually 


28  A  L  C  O  H  0  L  :    I  T  S    P  L  A  C  E  . 


and  in  smaller  quantities  than  in  the  previous  examples,^ 
the  alcohol  acts  as  a  stimulant  at  first.  The  intellectual 
functions  are  excited,  as  shown  by  gaiety,  talkativeness, 
animated  expression,  play  of  fancy,  and  increased  rapidity 
as  well  as  variety  of  thought.  But  the  paramount  func- 
tion of  voluntary  control — the  great  distinguishing  char- 
acteristic of  the  human  mind — is  already  affected  other- 
wise than  by  increase  or  exaltation.  While  perception, 
memory,  and  imagination,  are  specially  excited,  the 
will,  almost  from  the  first,  is  sensibly  impaired.  The 
mind  suffers  in  its  best  part,  through  even  slight  tam- 
pering thus  with  the  material  organ  wherewith  it  is 
connected. 

The  heart  is  roused,  and  beats  quicker;  the  general 
circulation  is  hastened,  and  the  whole  frame  feels 
warmer,  stronger,  and  better. 

As  the  dose  is  continued,  its  effects  are  not  only 
observed  in  the  functions  of  the  anterior  and  upper  parts 
of  the  brain  —  its  intellectual  portion  —  but  extend  to 
the  deeper  and  posterior  parts,  connected  with  special 
sense  and  muscular  power.  Sight  and  hearing  are 
affected,  the  limbs  grow  weak  and  tottering,  the  head 
swims,  the  tongue  refuses  distinct  articulation.  At  the 
same  time,  intellectual  excitement  becomes  more  and 
more  decidedly  intellectual  perversion,  partaking  of  the 
nature  of  delirium;  reason  is  at  a  discount,  and  voluntary 
control  placed  more  and  more  in  abeyance.  What  is 
specially  human  is  lessened,  what  is  merely  animal  is 
intensified ;  the  passions  rise  rebelliously,  and  defy  all 
moral  control ;  and  the  man  becomes,  under  his  own  act, 
what  the  law  has  quaintly  termed  him,   "voluntarms 


I 


ALCOHOL   AS   A  POISON.  29 

demon.^'  He  is  temporarily  insane,  and  fitted  for  any 
act  of  violence  to  himself  or  others. 

But  as  the  poisoning  material  filters  on  into  the  frame, 
its  efi"ects  advance  still  farther.  All  semblance  of  stimu- 
lation, in  any  part  or  way,  is  over  now.  Intellect  is  all 
but  departed ;  and  muscular  power,  as  well  as  the  special 
senses,  are  gone  or  going  too.  Besides  involvement  of 
the  whole  brain,  the  upper  part  of  the  spinal  cord  is 
f^ufi'cring;  and,  in  consequence,  the  heart  is  weakened, 
the  pulse  is  laboring,  the  respiration  is  oppressed ;  the 
face  that  awhile  ago  was  pale  and  haggard,  is  growing 
swollen  and  livid ;  and  unless  a  halt  is  called  now,  matters 
will  speedily  arrive  at  the  condition  of  No.  III. —  life  in 
peril  by  coma. 

The  best  that  can  happen  is  a  heavy  death-like  sleep 
of  long  duration,  with  an  awakening  to  fever  of  body  and 
misery  of  mind. 

Certain  advocates  of  alcohol  talk  in  a  somewhat  odd 
fashion  of  such  an  event  happening  *^  occasionally." 
They  admit  that  intoxication  is  wrong,  in  every  sense ; 
but  they  protest  that  its  "occasional"  occurrence  ought 
not,  in  all  fairness,  to  shut  out  the  man's  drinking  from 
the  claim  of  being  reckoned  compatible  with  "  modera- 
tion." And  taking  this  for  granted,  they  then  go  on  to 
speak  complacently  of  how  it  is  to  be  atoned  for,  thus : 
"  which  excess  he  sleeps  ofi"  that  night  —  or  pays  for  by 
a  headache  next  morning,  and  hears  no  more  of  it." 
Indeed  !  He  has  a  heavy  sleep,  no  doubt ;  but  he  does 
not  "  sleep  it  all  off;  "  some  remains.  He  pays  a  heavy 
bill  in  the  morning,  too ;  that  is  certain.  But  can  he 
show  a  discharge  in  full  ?     No,  no.     His  creditor  is  not 


30  alcohol:    ITS    PLACE. 

so  easily  satisfied.  The  headache  is  only  a  sum  in 
hand;  one  instalment  of  the  price  of  the  pleasure. 
There  are  other  payments  to  be  made  by  and  by.  "  He 
hears  more  of  it,"  to  his  cost;  as  will  duly  appear  in 
the  sequel. 

V.  Lead,  given  in  small  but  frequently-repeated  doses 
(considerably  short  of  perilling  life  at  once  by  poisoning), 
ultimately  paralyzes  the  muscular  system ;  arsenic,  simi- 
larly used,  produces  serious  consequences  upon  the  mu- 
cous membranes;  and  alcohol,  in  a  smaller  dose  than  at 
any  time  to  threaten  a  fatal  poisoning,  yet  by  frequent 
repetition  may  produce  a  most  damaging  result  upon  the 
entire  nervous  system  —  not  accumulating  in  substance 
within  the  body,  as  these  other  poisons  may  do,  but 
keeping  up  a  constant,  and  consequently  cumulative 
action  on  that  part  of  the  frame.  This  state  has  been 
called  "  alcoliolismus  chronicus"  or  "  chronic  alcohol- 
poisoning."     And  it  might  be  termed  alcohol-founder. 

The  whole  body  trembles,  but  especially  the  hands, 
the  limbs,  and  the  tongue;  eyesight  and  hearing  are 
impaired ;  the  skin  is  affected  by  various  morbid  sensa- 
tions ;  the  mind  at  best  is  weak,  and  often  disordered ; 
general  debility  increases ;  sleep  is  capricious,  disturbed, 
and  unrefreshing ;  strength,  appetite,  flesh,  comfort, 
energy  —  all  disappear;  there  is  no  relief,  save  what  is 
both  temporary  and  delusive  —  in  continuance  of  the 
poison;  the  stomach  rejects  food,  and  puts  forth  foul 
secretions  of  its  own ;  startings  seize  the  limbs ;  epilepsy 
may  follow;  and  the  man  may  die.  Arsenic  could  not 
sap  life  more  surely;  and  all  may  be  done,  be  it  remem- 


ALCOIIOLAS    A    POISON.  31 

ered,  without  the  victim  having  ever  once  been  abso- 
lutely drunk. 

VI.  This  is  sad  work  with  the  body.  But  the  mind, 
too,  is  not  without  its  danger  and  damage.  In  the 
course  of  the  chronic  poisoning  just  spoken  of,  or  in  the 
midst  of  a  more  active  and  acute  debauch,  the  condition 
of  "  insanity,"  to  which  allusion  has  been  made  (p.  28), 
may  not  prove  temporary — that  is,  passing  off  with  the 
other  immediate  effects  of  the  drunkenness  —  but  may 
be  prolonged.  The  man  becomes  sober,  but  is  mad ; 
and  may  remain  so  for  some  time.  This  madness  — 
technically  termed  ^^ delirium  ehriosum" — is  usually  of 
an  active  and  dangerous  kind,  and  may  entail  much  evil 
upon  the  victim  by  reason  of  violence  done  to  himself  or 
others.  And,  besides,  it  is  liable  to  become  permanent — 
changing  its  character,  and  settling  down  into  confirmed 
mental  disease. 

VII.  Or  the  mental  affection  may  be  of  a  different 
form  still — what  is  termed  " deUrium  tremens'' :  — the 
body  weak,  the  nerves  unstrung,  the  mind  a  prey  to  all 

aanner  of  rapidly-shifting  delusions,  with  suspicion  and 
iear;  violence  to  others  improbable,  but  injury  to  self 
not  unlikely.  This  may  be  the  result  of  an  occasional 
bout  of  hard  drinking,  or  may  form  a  part  of  the  "  chronic 
T>oisoning."  Ordinarily,  it  is  connected  with  some  aggra- 
.  ated  excess  in  the  habitually  intemperate. 

As  a  sample,  take  a  case  —  in  some  respects  curious. 

\  gentleman  of  middle  age,  and  active  business  habits, 

:ad  for  years  been  intemperate;  and  more  than  one 

attack  0?  delirium  tremens  had  imperilled  his  life.    "When 

first  I  saw  him,  he  was  in  his  shirt,  hopping  incessantly 


32  alcohol:  its  place. 

from  chair  to  chair,  in  order  to  avoid  myriads  of  snakes 
that  were  crawling  on  the  carpet.  Then  the  vision 
changed  upon  him,  and  he  rushed  about  more  violently 
to  escape  from  men  following  him  with  sharp  knives. 
Suddenly  he  leaped  upon  the  bed,  arranged  his  limbs 
quietly,  and  scarcely  breathed.  He  told  us  he  was  dead, 
and  read  out  an  announcement  of  his  sudden  and  unex- 
pected decease,  from  the  page  of  an  imaginary  Couranty 
concluding  with,  "  Friends  will  please  to  accept  of  this 
intimation."  So  he  lay  for  some  minutes,  affording 
breathing  time  to  his  attendants ;  but  all  of  a  sudden  he 
rose,  went  into  the  sitting-room,  and  began  to  write  with 
a  trembling  hand  hastily  at  the  table.  He  said  that  he 
had  stupidly  forgotten  to  add  a  codicil  to  his  will,  and 
was  glad  to  find  that  it  was  not  too  late  to  supply  the 
omission.  Having  written  a  tolerably-coherent  state- 
ment, to  the  effect  that  he  had  died  on  such  a  date,  and 
that  he  begged  his  employers  to  support  his  son  as  his 
successor  in  business,  he  quietly  returned  to  his  bedroom; 
but  no  sooner  did  he  cast  his  eye  on  the  empty  bed, 
than  he  broke  forth  in  a  most  violent  tirade  against  the 
attendants  for  having  stolen  his  body.  "  Where  is  it  ? 
where  is  it  ?  I  left  it  lying  there  when  I  went  into  the 
parlor  to  write  the  codicil,  and  when  my  back  was  turned 
some  scoundrel  has  taken  it  away.  Bring  it  back  in- 
stantly." And  so  he  lapsed  into  excitement  again.  But 
by  and  by  stupor  came  on,  he  lay  quiet  once  more,  and, 
despite  of  all  the  help  that  we  could  give,  the  ^'  died  at 
Edinburgh "  became  a  sad  reality. 

The  man  does  not  always  die,  however  ]  he  may  re- 
cover many  a  time,  drinking  on  and  on ;  but  death  in 


ALCOHOL   AS  A   POISON.  66 

the  paroxysm  is  not  unfrequent ;  and,  besides,  this  trem- 
bling delirium  may  pass  away,  only  to  be  followed  by 
steady  insanity. 

VIII.  There  is  yet  another  evil  —  an  occasional,  nay, 
by  no  means  unfrequent,  evidence  of  alcoholic  poisoning 
— "  Oinomania."  For  a  time,  the  victim  is  well  ]  sober, 
active,  trustworthy.  But  of  a  sudden,  a  furious  and 
fiendish  impulse  draws  him  helplessly  to  the  bottle.  He 
gulps  down  the  contents  rapidly,  glass  by  glass,  as  if  his 
only  object  were  instant  and  complete  intoxication;  and 
once  drunk,  he  will  scarcely  permit  himself  to  grow  sober 
again,  till  probably  a  week  or  ten  days  have  elapsed. 
Then  he  gradually  gets  hold  of  a  lucid  interval  —  to  be 
rudely  broken  up  once  more,  however,  at  no  remote  date- 
The  craving  is  that  of  a  madman,  and  all  but  absolutely 
irresistible.  As  one  has  himself  said,  in  terrible  words, 
"  If  a  bottle  of  brandy  stood  at  one  end  of  the  table,  and 
the  pit  of  hell  yawned  at  the  other,  and  I  were  convinced 
that  I  should  be  pushed  in  so  soon  as  I  took  one  glass,  I 
could  not  refrain." 

This  state  is  never  of  spontaneous  origin,  like  many 
forms  of  mental  disorder,  but  is  always  preceded  by  in- 
temperance. At  the  same  time,  it  is  most  important  to 
remember,  that  some  constitutions  are  much  more  sus- 
ceptible than  others,  requiring  comparatively  little  pre- 
vious indulgence  in  strong  drink  to  produce  the  evil. 
For  example,  I  was  lately  consulted  regarding  a  lady 
who  had  become  a  frightful  oinomaniac,  and  whose 
malady  originated — or  had  been,  as  it  were,  suggested — 
by  the  habit  of  carrying  strong  spirits  occasionally  in 
the  mouth  for  the  cure  of  toothache.  "Against  her  own 
3 


34  alcohol:    ITS    PLACE. 

better  judgment  and  the  voice  of  conscience,  she  is 
forced  on,"  says  my  correspondent.  "  For  days  on  end 
she  has  been  out  of  one  stupor  into  another.  On  two 
succeeding  days  of  this  week  she  has  consumed  a  quart 
bottle  of  strong  whisky;  the  next  day,  or  rather  nighty 
when  people  were  asleep,  she  got  hold  of  some  key 
which  was  supposed  to  secure  from  her  a  bottle  of 
spirits  and  another  of  wine,  and  within  twenty-four 
hours  this  was  also  consumed,  no  one  being  able  to 
snatch  it  from  her." 


Here  I  might  stop  and  close  the  evidence,  claiming  a 
verdict  against  the  Spirit  of  Wine  as  a  poisoner.  But 
there  are  minor  counts  in  the  indictment ;  and  to  make 
the  case  more  complete,  suffer  me  to  state  these  very 
briefly. 

The  drinker,  escaping  or  surviving  the  major  results, 
is  still  liable  to  serious  injury,  and  of  various  kinds. 

1.  Absorbed  into  the  blood,  unchanged,  alcohol  cor- 
rupts or  poisons  that  important  fluid.  It  becomes  less 
coagulable  —  a  state  favorable  to  the  occurrence  of  hem- 
orrhages, and  unfavorable  to  the  arrest  of  loss  of  blood ; 
unfavorable  also  to  healthy  nutrition.  Besides,  it  assumes 
more  or  less  of  the  venous  character ;  holding  far  more 
than  it  ought  of  waste  material,  and  so  becoming 
"poisoned" — to  use  the  ordinary  language  of  the  schools. 
The  alcohol  has  done  this,  as  we  shall  see ;  taking  the 
oxygen  of  the  lungs  to  itself,  and  leaving  no  sufficient 
supply  for  oxidating  the  "waste."  This  "waste"  so 
retained,  seems  to  be  converted  in  part  into  fat — waiting 
to  be  burnt ;  and  the  blood  of  drunkards,  accordingly,  is 


ALCOHOL   AS   A   POISON.  35 

found  to  contain  an  unusual  amount  of  fatty  contents  — 
(this  fat  not  burnt) — apt  to  take  the  place  of  the  healthy 
tissues,  as  will  be  immediately  stated. 

Poison  the  blood,  and  you  poison  the  whole  man. 
And  do  we  not  find  the  drunkard  soon  showing  plain 
signs  of  this  ?  —  ill  nourished,  flabby,  weak,  watery  in 
his  tissues,  sodden  and  sad  in  color.  Sometimes  he 
grows  lean  and  lank ;  sometimes  he  gathers  unhealthy 
fatness  —  the  fat  being  put  down  in  wrong  places,  and 
found  where  no  fat  should  be.  Internal  accumulations 
of  this  redundancy  oppress  the  vital  organs ;  and  the 
partial  conversion  of  muscular  and  other  tissues  into  fat, 
constitutes  one  of  the  most  serious  diseases  to  which 
mankind  are  exposed.  With  such  degeneration  of  the 
heart,  for  example,  our  life  is  not  worth  an  hour's  pur- 
chase. We  may  at  any  moment  fall  down  dead.  And 
no  single  agent  does  half  the  work  of  alcohol  in  causing 
such  degeneration. 

2.  Other  heart-diseases,  as  well  as  aneurisms,  and 
varicose  veins,  have  also  their  origin,  very  frequently, 
in  the  free  and  sustained  use  of  alcohol.  The  blood- 
vessels'  cannot  with  impunity  bear  a  constant,  unnatural, 
and  inordinate  stimulus,  with  a  consequently  hurried 
circulation. 

3.  Alcohol's  special  action  on  the  brain  and  nervous 
system  we  have  already  seen  (page  28).  The  functional 
mischief  is  manifest ;  and  there  is  good  reason  to  believe 
that  an  injurious  change  takes  place  in  the  structure 
too.  When  an  anatomist  wishes  to  preserve  a  brain  or 
spinal  cord,  for  the  purpose  of  dissection,  he  places  it  in 
strong  spirits ;  and  it  grows  firm  and  hard  there.     Why 


36  alcohol:    ITS    PLACE. 

may  not  something  of  a  like  change  take  place  during 
life,  when  the  organ  is  from  time  to  time  saturated  with 
alcoholic  blood,  as  in  the  case  of  the  drunkard  it  cannot 
fail  to  be  ?  *  And  is  it  wise  to  harden,  or  to  run  the 
risk  of  hardening,  a  living  brain  ?  Will  that  benefit  a 
living  nerve,  or  nervous  centre,  which  preserves  it  when 
dead? 

Besides,  with  disordered  blood,  disordered  circulation, 
and  disordered  brain,  obviously  this  latter  organ  must  be 
peculiarly  liable  to  the  occurrence  of  dangerous  disease 
—  such  as  inflammation,  congestion,  and  hemorrhage. 
Every  one  knows  how  often  thus  the  drunkard  is  taken 
away.  Sometimes,  too,  a  creeping  palsy  comes  on.  And 
epilepsy  is  one  of  the  most  frequent  and  formidable  com- 
plications of  habitual  intemperance. 

4.  The  stomach  is,  of  course,  primarily  affected.  On 
its  lining  membrane  the  alcohol  acts  as  a  stimulant;  and 
may  at  first  do  little  more,  except  when  in  excessive 
quantity  and  strength,  than  excite  and  exalt  its  func- 

*  "  Does drink  freely  ?"    "  Oh,  yes  —  and  stands  it  well.    He 

is  a  hard-headed  fellow."  "What  a  depth  of  hidden  meaning  there  is 
in  many  of  the  common  phrases  of  life  !  Hard-headed  ?  Yes ;  thick 
outside,  and  hard  within.  That  the  brain  is  really  hardened,  seems 
a  fair  conclusion  from  experiments  of  Liebig  on  the  power  of  alcohol 
to  displace  the  natural  and  healthy  water-constituent  of  all  animal 
tissues*  Many  tissues  and  organs  of  our  bodies  consist  normally  of 
from  one-half  to  three-fourths  of  water;  and  when  these  are  immersed 
in  alcohol,  more  than  half  the  water  is  displaced,  owing  to  the  capil- 
lary attraction  of  the  tissues  for  alcohol  and  water  being  less  than 
for  water  alone.  Hence,  doubtless,  in  part  at  least,  the  earthy  pre- 
cipitation so  common  in  the  blood-vessels  of  the  intemperate  —  the 
water  in  their  textures  being  too  scanty  to  keep  certain  saline  matters 
in  solution. 


ALCOHOL   AS   A   POISON.  37 

tion.  But  such  simple  action  proves  very  temporary, 
under  habitual  repetitions  of  a  liberal  dose.  Congestion 
and  inflammation  take  the  place  of  simple  excitement. 
Instead  of  digestion  being  favored  and  quickened,  it  is 
retarded  and  perverted  —  all  the  thousand  and  one  evils 
of  dyspepsia  setting  in ;  while,  by  an  acute  inflammatory 
attack,  danger  to  life  may  be  at  any  time  superadded. 

After  a  time,  the  drunkard  comes  to  have  no  stomach 
at  all.  As  a  digester,  its  occupation  is  gone.  Food  is 
rejected,  along  with  foul,  loathsome  secretions  from  the 
diseased  lining  membrane.  The  skinned  fiery  lips  and 
sour  water-brash  of  the  drunkard  are  proverbial.  The 
organ  ceases  to  be  a  concocter  of  chyme,  and  degenerates 
into  a  kind  of  sponge,  through  which  the  alcohol  filters 
into  the  general  frame.  The  man  lives  no  longer  on 
food,  but  like  a  snipe  on  suction. 

5.  Next  to  the  stomach,  the  liver  suffers.  The  alco- 
hol, absorbed  and  passing  at  once  into  the  veins  of  that 
organ,  arouses  an  increased  activity  in  its  working.  And 
well  it  may;  for  by  its  continued  presence  in  the  onward 
blood,  it  prevents  the  effectual  burning  off  of  the  noxious 
effete  matter,  or  waste  (page  17),  which  then  falls  to  be 
disposed  of  in  unusual  and  unnatural  quantity  by  the 
liver  and  other  excretory  organs.  And  the  natural  con- 
sequence of  this  accumulated  labor  is  the  invasion  of 
disease  in  various  forms.  Congestion,  inflammation,  and 
functional  disorder  are  common  occurrences  in  the 
drunkard's  flank ;  seldom  can  lie  say  that  his  "  withers 
are  unwrung ;"  and  ere  long  a  chronic  structural  change 
will  have  set  in,  so  peculiar  to  himself  as  to  be  ordinarily 


38  alcohol:    ITS    PLACE. 

recognised  as  "the  drunkard's  liver" — or  tlie  "gin 
liver"  —  in  great  measure  due  probably  to  the  almost 
constant  actual  presence  of  alcohol  in  the  substance  of 
the  organ. 

The  advocates  of  alcohol,  however,  demur  to  all  this, 
and  protest  that  their  client  cannot  in  justice  be  accused 
of  constant  and  habitual  action  against  any  part  of  the 
frame,  seeing  that  it  is  so  very  rapidly  got  rid  of — partly 
by  burning  in  the  lungs,  partly  through  the  organs  of 
excretion.  And  by  way  of  strengthening  their  plea, 
they  go  on  to  admit,  that  were  alcohol  to  be  constantly 
in  the  blood  the  result  must  be  fatal,  or  at  least  most 
formidable.  Now,  we  admit  that  alcohol  is  "  worked 
off"  with  great  rapidity;  far  more  quickly  than  almost 
any  thing  else  ordinarily  swallowed  by  man.  And  from 
that  circumstance  we  are  simple  enough  to  suppose,  that 
man's  frame  does  not  wish  for,  and  by  natural  instinct 
resents  its  presence.  There  would  seem  to  be  other 
things  than  a  "vacuum"  that  nature  abhors ;  and  alcohol 
is  one  of  them.  She  employs  all  her  energies  to  get 
rid  of  the  unwelcome  intruder,  no  doubt;  and  strains 
her  excretory  organs  in  doing  so,  endangering  them  with 
disease  through  overwork.  But  still  the  success  is  far 
from  instantaneous.  Many  hours  ordinarily  elapse  ere 
all  is  clear.  For  instance,  after  a  tolerably  hard  drink 
a  man  goes  to  bed,  and  sleeps  heavily,  if  not  soundly, 
for  eight  or  ten  hours.  On  rising  then,  his  kidneys 
plainly  tell  that  the  alcohol  was  plentiful  within  him 
just  before.  At  breakfast,  the  morning  dram  may  renew 
the  supply.     In  the  forenoon  comes  the  biscuit,  with 


ALCOHOL   AS   A   POISON.  39 

glass  of  slierry,  or  mouthful  of  brandy.  At  dinner  there 
is  a  fair  allowance  of  alcoholics  taken  in ;  and  supper 
over  (for  he  makes  a  point  of  supping,  for  the  sake  of 
what  is  to  follow  —  he,  too,  abhorring  a  vacuum),  he 
cannot  go  to  bed  without  his  "night-cap."  Is  it  not 
very  plain,  that  thus,  in  the  case  of  the  habitual  drinker, 
who  may  perhaps  never  actually  reach  the  crisis  that 
perils  the  claim  to  "moderation,"  a  tolerably  constant 
supply  of  alcohol  is  kept  circulating  in  his  frame  ?  And 
was  it  not  a  rash  admission  for  the  alcoholic  advocate  to 
make,  that  the  constant  presence  of  alcohol  in  the  living 
blood  was  in  the  last  degree  disastrous  ?  None  of  the 
intervals  between  the  "  drinks "  is  so  prolonged  as  that 
of  the  night  sleep,  during  which  the  proof  of  alcohol's 
presence — within  the  frame,  if  not  in  the  blood  itself — 
is  both  simple  and  satisfactory. 

6.  The  kidneys,  however,  do  not  receive  the  alcohol 
in  so  pure  a  form,  or  in  so  direct  a  way,  as  does  the  liver. 
Ere  it  reaches  them,  it  is  modified  and  mixed  up  with 
the  general  mass  of  blood.  Yet  there  is  alcoholic 
strength  and  amount  enough  to  stimulate  these  organs 
to  increased  working;  at  the  same  time  giving  them 
something  to  work  for,  in  extruding,  like  the  liver,  an 
excess  of  redundant  and  injurious  material.  The  alcohol 
itself,  too,  passes  off  in  no  inconsiderable  quantity;  a 
fact,  as  has  just  been  stated,  of  which  every  one  must 
be  aware,  who  observes  the  odor  of  its  diuretic  results. 
And  the  consequence  of  this  habitual  excessive  strain  on 
the  kidneys  is,  once  more,  disease  —  congestion,  inflam- 
mation, or  chronic  change. 


40  alcohol:  its  place. 

Alcohol  is  a  common  cause  of  what  is  termed  "Bright'a 
kidney," — a  most  formidable  disease,  of  gradual  and 
insidious  origin.* 

7.  The  skin,  like  the  liver  and  kidneys,  excretes; 
that  is,  besides  other  duties,  assists  in  carrying  off  re- 
dundant and  effete  matter  from  the  system.  Its  millions 
of  pores  are  busy  at  that  employment  day  and  night. 
And  they  find  it  quite  sufl&cient  work  to  overtake  their 
ordinary  task  in  a  satisfactory  way.  But  the  intempe- 
rate throws  a  heavy  burden  upon  them.  There  comes 
the  same  double  effect  as  on  the  liver  and  kidneys  — 
stimulation  to  a  higher  rate  of  working,  and  an  increased 
amount  of  work  to  do.  The  whole  skin  suffers  in  con- 
sequence, by  blotches  and  blains,  by  erysipelas,  and  car- 
buncles, and  boils,  by  chronic  discoloration  and  disease. 
And  those  parts  suffer  most  which  are  most  exposed  to 
view;  as  if  the  suffering  texture,  by  a  kind  of  retributive 
justice,  were  permitted  to  declare  to  all  onlookers  the 
sign  of  its  injurious  treatment : 

"  Puflfing  the  cheeks,  blearing  the  curious  eyes, 
Studding  the  face  with  vicious  heraldry — 
What  pearls  and  rubies  doth  the  wine  disclose, 
Making  the  purse  poor  to  enrich  the  nose ! " 

The  skin-disease  in  question,  or  at  least  something 
like  it,  may  arise  from  some  other  and  more  reputable 
cause,  no  doubt ;  but  in  all  cases  the  evidence  points  in 
one  way,  and  in  most  cases  truly,  as  every  one  knows. 
"  The  show  of  their  countenance  doth  witness  against 
them." 

*  Dr.  Christison's  cases  of  Brighf  s  disease  show  a  proportion  of 
from  three-fourths  to  four-fifths  occurring  in  drunkards. 


ALCOHOL   AS   A  POISON.  41 

"  Does  the  priest  drink  ?"  said  one  Irishman  to  another. 
"  No ;  never  a  dhrop."  "  Then  how  comes  it  that  his 
face  is  pebble-dashed  with  strawberries  ?  '^ 

Alcohol,  then,  kills  in  large  doses,  and  half  kills  in 
smaller  ones.  It  produces  insanity,  delirium,  fits.  It 
poisons  the  blood,  and  wastes  the  man.  The  brain 
suffers  most  injury,  both  in  structure  and  function  j  but 
there  is  no  vital  organ  in  the  body  in  which  there  is 
not  induced,  sooner  or  later,  more  or  less,  disorder  and 
disease. 

I  might  go  on.  The  list  of  evils  is  not  exhausted, 
wherewith  alcohol  is  found  in  most  damnatory  conjunc- 
tion. But  I  feel  confident  that  the  case  is  already  more 
than  proved. 

Some  theorists,  indeed,  perversely  argue,  that  though 
alcohol,  in  large  doses,  is  doubtless  poisonous,  yet,  be- 
cause it  is  not  apparently  hurtful  when  taken  in  small 
quantity,  or  "moderation,"  that  therefore  it  is  no  poison. 
The  same  men  may,  in  the  same  way,  assoilize  every 
article  of  the  animal  and  vegetable  kingdoms  that  is 
brought  as  panel  to  their  bar.  Prussic  acid  in  a  full 
dose  will  kill  you  like  a  shot;  but  doses  of  two  or  three 
drops  of  the  diluted  acid,  taken  three  or  four  times  a 
day,  not  only  do  no  harm,  in  certain  circumstances,  but 
even  effect  a  great  deal  of  positive  good.  Therefore 
prussic  acid  is  no  true  poison !  And  so  of  arsenic. 
Swallow  an  ounce,  and  you  die  in  torture.  But  in 
Styria,  you  will  be  told  that  it  "  actually  gives,  both  to 
horses  and  men,  increased  vigor,  increased  beauty,  and 
an  enviable  rejuvenescence,  when   taken   regularly  in 


42  alcohol:    ITS    PLACE. 

minute  doses."  Ergo,  ^^ horrible  arsenic"  is  no  true 
poison !  Is  not  this  horrible  quibbling  ?  Arguing 
thus,  you  virtually  contend  for  the  extinction  of  poisons 
as  a  class.  According  to  your  way  of  it,  there  can  be 
no  true  poison.  And  verily  there  is  none,  if  alcohol  be 
not  such. 

But,  I  say  again,  my  case  is  more  than  proved ;  and 
I  confidently  claim  a  verdict  of  "  Guilty." 

ALCOHOL   AS   A   MEDICINAL  AGENT. 

From  among  the  fiercest  poisons,  as  just  hinted,  come 
some  of  our  most  valued  medicines  —  a  startling  fact, 
perhaps,  to  the  uninitiated,  but  nevertheless  most  true. 
A  knife  of  very  keen  edge,  when  used  by  a  light  and 
dexterous  hand,  will  make  a  cleaner  and  better  wound 
than  the  blunter  instrument  which  has  to  be  pressed 
heavily  on  the  part.  And  so  the  remedy  of  greatest 
power,  when  skilfully  timed  and  apportioned  to  the 
varying  progress  of  the  case,  is  often  more  valuable  in 
urgent  and  dangerous  circumstances  than  the  "simples" 
of  the  timid  practitioner.  A  few  small  doses  of  the  one 
may  turn  the  current  of  disease,  and  save  valuable  life ; 
while,  under  the  other,  large  and  sustained  dosings  may 
prove  comparatively  unavailing.  Prussic  acid,  aconite, 
strychnine,  arsenic,  opium,  belladonna,  are  at  once  in- 
tense poisons,  and  admirable  medicines  in  the  hands  of 
the  skilful.  And  we  venture  to  say  that  not  a  week 
passes  in  the  experience  of  any  physician  in  large  prac- 
tice, in  which  some  of  these  are  not  administered  for  the 
cure  of  disease,  and  with  the  best  efi'ect. 


ALCOHOL    AS    A    MEDICINE.  43 

Into  this  category  we  cannot  refuse  to  introduce  alco- 
hol, and  alcohol  cannot  refuse  to  come. 

By  some  authorities  it  has  been  classed  among  the 
Stimulants;  by  others,  and  more  accurately,  among  the 
Narcotics.  The  latter,  says  Headland,  "  are  defined  to 
be  medicines  which  pass  from  the  blood  to  the  nerves, 
or  nerve-centres,  which  act  so  as  first  to  exalt  nervous 
force,  and  then  to  depress  it,  and  have  also  a  special 
action  en  the  intellectual  part  of  the  brain."  Narcotics 
he  further  divides  into  three  orders :  those  causing  ine- 
briation— those  causing  sleep  —  and  those  causing  deli- 
rium. Among  the  inebriants,  he  places  alcohol  first. 
"  The  medicines  of  this  order,"  says  he,  "  taking  alcohol 
as  the  type,  approach  more  nearly  to  stimulants  than 
any  other  narcotics.  When  given  in  small  doses,  their 
narcotic  operation  may  hardly  be  perceived.  They  are 
then  exhilarants ;  slightly  quickening  the  pulse,  and  en- 
livening the  mental  faculties.  When  given  in  large 
doses,  this  stimulating  action  on  the  heart  and  mental 
powers  occurs  first,  and  is  now  more  intense ;  but  it  is 
soon  succeeded  by  disturbance  and  impairment  of  the 
intellectual  functions." 

This  latter  effect — that  of  depression,  intoxication,  or 
narcotism  —  is  seldom  required  by  the  practitioner  of 
medicine;  unless,  indeed,  he  clumsily  adopts  it  as  a 
means  of  deadening  sensation  to  pain,  or  relaxing  mus- 
cular power  during  surgical  operations.  Chloroform,  we 
know,  does  this  much  better  —  the  effect  being  more 
speedy,  more  manageable,  more  transient,  and  conse- 
quently less  injurious  to  the  system. 

The  medicinal  dose  of  alcohol,  then,  is  not  large,  but 


44  alcohol:    ITS    PLACE. 

small  *  and  frequently  repeated,  with  the  effect  of  pro- 
ducing and  maintaining  the  first  or  stimulant  effect,  so 
long  as  this  may  be  required.  And  from  what  has 
already  been  said,  it  will  be  readily  understood  that  the 
stimulant  power  of  this  agent  is  exerted  on  the  nervous 
system  and  on  the  circulation,  but  mainly  and  primarily 
on  the  former. 

I.  When  a  man  becomes  faint,  for  example,  from  fear, 
pain,  or  sudden  injury,  and  it  is  desirable  to  rouse  him 
from  the  state  of  sliock  in  which  he  is  found,  what  more 
suitable  than  ammonia  —  a  pure  stimulant  ?  or  brandy — 
a  stimulant-narcotic  ?  The  dose  of  the  latter  must  be 
moderate,  however;  as,  when  speaking  of  the  poisons, 
we  have  seen  how  a  large  amount  of  alcohol  rapidly 
swallowed  by  the  strongest  and  healthiest  of  men  may 
produce  shock,  or  depression  of  the  nervous  power,  of 
the  most  formidable  kind.  And  it  is  only  by  skilful 
repetitions  of  this  moderate  dose  —  sometimes  even 
minute  —  that  the  rousing  effect  on  the  nervous  system 
is  produced  and  maintained,  until  reaction  has  fairly  set 
in,  and  the  state  of  shock  has  passed  away. 

II.  In  certain  fevers  —  such  as  typhus  —  there  is 
marked  and  dangerous  tendency  to  nervous  depression ; 
under  which,  if  unchecked,  the  vital  functions  becomo' 
faint,  and  are  apt  to  cease.  Practitioners  have  in  con- 
sequence learnt,  in  certain  cases,  and  still  more  in  cer- 
tain epidemics,  to  anticipate  and  oppose  this  evil,  by  an 

*  There  are  exceptional  cases  —  such  as  those  of  flooding,  or  othei 
great  loss  of  blood — where  the  exhaustion  is  so  great  that  very  con- 
ciderable  quantities  of  alcoholics  are  required  in  order  to  arouse  the 
system,  and  prevent  fatal  sinking. 


ALCOHOL    AS    A    MEDICINE.  45 

early  and  judicious  use  of  stimulants.  What !  wine  and 
brandy  in  fever !  Most  certainly.  Then  is  the  time  to 
see  the  use  and  value  of  alcohol.  There  is  nothing  in 
nature  without  its  use.  Scorpions,  snakes,  fleas,  bugs, 
and  such  like  unpleasant  and  apparently  unprofitable 
specimens  of  zoology,  may  sometimes  puzzle  the  ordi- 
nary observer  who  would  define  their  exact  use  in'^ 
society;  yet,  bewildered  though  he  be,  he  may  rest 
satisfied  of  this,  that  their  operations  are  beneficial, 
sometimes  and  somehow.  And  so  of  alcohol.  Often  it 
is  most  noxious;  and  looking  at  the  wide-spread  mis- 
chief that  it  is  ever  working  around  them,  superficial 
observers  may  be  tempted  to  think  that  it  is  only  evil, 
and  evil  continually.  But  in  this,  as  in  other  things, 
the  saying  of  the  wise  man  comes  true,  "  To  everything 
there  is  a  season,  and  a  time  to  every  purpose  under  the 
heaven."  While  standing  at  the  bedside  of  a  fever  case 
—  urgent,  yet  doing  well  under  wine  —  the  ship  in  a 
terrible  sea,  yet  obeying  the  helm  in  its  every  turn,  and 
steering  steadily  —  I  have  often  wished  to  have  a  tippler 
or  a  drunkard  on  one  side  of  me,  with  a  "  fanatical  tee- 
totaller" on  the  other,  in  order  that  I  might  have  the 
pleasure  of  saying,  "  There,  gentlemen,  there  is  a  glo- 
rious example  of  the  true  use  of  wine."  The  man  is 
taking  a  tablespoonful  of  sherry,  every  hour,  or  every  two 
hours  —  or  a  somewhat  larger  allowance  of  claret,  or  a 
smaller  proportion  of  brandy,  —  the  form  and  dose  of  the 
alcohol  varying  to  meet  the  varying  phases  of  the  dis- 
ease ;  and  at  every  dose  you  can  almost  see  —  far  more 
truly  than  you  can  see  grass  growing  in  a  warm  summer 
shower,  after  long  drought — r  health  returning  to  the 


46  alcohol:    ITS    PLACE. 

otherwise  sinkiog  frame :  —  the  cheek  less  flushed,  the 
skin  more  cool,  the  eye  more  steady  and  clear,  the  pulse 
less  frequent  and  more  strong,  the  tongue  more  moist 
and  clean,  the  breathing  easier,  the  sensations  all  more 
comfortable.  What  is  the  alcohol  doing  ?  Not  feeding 
the  man  in  reality,  as  one  might  be  apt  to  suppose ;  but 
stimulating  the  nervous  system;  spurring  the  nerves 
and  nerve-centres,  and  keeping  them  awake,  when  other- 
wise they  would  go  to  sleep,  and  leave  the  vital  func- 
tions, first  to  flag,  and  then  to  fail  utterly  —  going  to 
sleep  too.  The  nervous  power  is  kept  active,  and  this 
excites  the  vital  force  to  work  also.  "But  the  vital 
strength,"  you  will  object,  "must  be  soon  used  up  in 
this  way  —  exhausted."  There  is  a  risk  of  that,  no 
doubt;  but  better  to  run  that  risk,  than  let  all  perish  at 
once  without  an  efibrt.  And  by  and  by  the  stomach 
will  be  enabled  to  receive  some  food  again,  and  to  digest 
it  too ;  whereby  the  vital  strength  will  be  sustained  and 
replenished,  so  as  to  meet  the  strain.  The  steamship  in 
the  storm  —  to  take  up  our  illustration  once  more  —  has 
but  a  limited  supply  of  coal ;  and  a  vigilant  production 
of  steam,  to  work  the  engines,  as  she  labors  in  the  sea, 
will  tend  hltimately  to  exhaustion  of  the  store  no  doubt; 
but  still  the  only  chance  of  safety  lies  in  "cracking 
on,"  with  the  hope  that  thereby  she  may  be  enabled  to 
reach  some  friendly  shelter,  to  both  "  coal  and  water" 
for  the  rest  of  her  way. 

Is  there  no  other  stimulant  that  will  do  as  well  —  as 
suitable,  and  more  safe  ?  Ammonia,  for  example  ? 
Experience  says.  No.  Ammonia  is  wanted  sometimes, 
besides.     But   we   must  have   the   alcohol,   probably, 


ALCOHOL    AS    A    MEDICINE.  47 

among  other  reasons,  because  of  the  heat-producing 
power  which  it  so  mauilestly  exercises  by  its  oxidation, 
or  burning  in  the  lungs,  and  which,  though  in  health 
apt  to  be  injurious,  as  we  shall  more  fully  see,  may  in 
this  extremity  be  at  least  expedient. 

Of  course  the  beneficial  effect  will  be  most  marked  in 
those  who,  when  in  health,  are  least  in  the  habit  of 
taking  alcohol  in  their  ordinary  beverages.  In  such 
persons  each  spoonful  tells  with  a  vigorous  stroke  on  the 
virgin  nervous  centres;  whereas,  in  the  "seasoned" 
orgaifism  much  of  the  alcohol  will  be  wasted  in  bringing 
up  the  nerves  to  their  ordinary  "  par,"  and  even  then 
the  stimulant  effect  cannot  be  expected  to  prove  so  suc- 
cessful. Slight  touches  of  the  whip  are  sufficient  to 
keep  the  fresh  horse  up  to  his  traces ;  but  the  scourge 
must  be  laid  heavily  on  the  jaded  hack,  and  withal 
there  will  be  infinitely  less  power  in  the  pull  that 
follows. 

While  water-drinking  can  never  render  people  more 
susceptible  of  such  disease,  it  is  satisfactory  to  know, 
and  important  to  remember,  that  it  makes  them  much 
more  impressed  by  the  needed  remedies  when  the  dis- 
ease has  come. 

And  another  point  falls  to  be  considered  here.  The 
law  of  tolerance.  If  disease  render  my  system  needful 
of  a  certain  remedy,  or  class  of  remedies  —  however 
powerful  they  may  be  in  themselves,  or  however  nox- 
ious, even,  under  other  circumstances  —  that  disease 
will  give  my  system,  at  the  same  time,  the  power  of 
bearing  that  remedy,  or  class  of  remedies,  with  compara- 
tive impunity.     I  have  inflammation  of  my  lungs,  and  I 


48  alcohol:    ITS    PLACE. 

take  a  grain  of  tartar-emetic,  which  affords  me  relief; 
and  I  may  go  on,  taking  grain  after  grain,  every  two 
hours  or  so,  without  feeling  myself  made  sick,  but,  on 
the  contrary,  feeling  myself  made  better.  But  if  I  have 
no  inflammation  of  the  lungs,  and  take  that  remedy  in 
like  dose,  I  shall  be  made  very  sick  in  the  space  of  half 
an  hour,  or  less;  and  if  I  attempt  to  persevere,  the 
symptoms  will  become  those  of  poisoning.  Or  I  have 
lock-jaw;  I  am  given  a  large  dose  of  Indian  hemp  or 
"  bang,"  and  this  is  repeated  frequently,  with  the  effect 
of  certainly  palliating,  and  mayhap  curing  the  cruel 
malady.  But  give  me  the  same  dose  in  health,  and  I 
shall  probably  be  thrown  into  a  trance,  with  restless 
tossings  and  troublous  visions,  awaking  in  terror  and 
exhaustion;  and  were  I  to  repeat  the  dosings  as  in 
tetanus,  I  should  run  great  risk  of  perishing  by  nar- 
cotism. And  so  it  is  here.  The  necessity  for  the 
remedy  engenders  a  power  of  bearing  it ;  and  it  seems 
at  the  same  time  to  give  a  fixed  and  favorable  bias  to 
the  working  of  the  remedy.  Without  shock  or  fever,  or 
other  depressing  agency  at  work  on  my  nervous  system, 
spoonful  after  spoonful,  or  glass  after  glass  of  the  alco- 
holic stimulant,  in  constant  and  frequent  succession, 
perhaps  for  days,  would  certainly  pass  the  stimulant 
action  and  merge  it  in  the  sedative ;  I  should  become 
intoxicated,  and  consequently  exhausted  —  my  nervous 
system  grievously  depressed.  But  in  the  trough  of  the 
fever  such  dosing  goes  on  without  one  sign  of  drunken- 
ness; the  brain,  on  the  contrary,  growing  clearer  and 
clearer  in  all  its  functions.  Nay,  it  is  even  perhaps 
wrong  to  speak  of  wine  and  brandy,  when  judiciously 


ALCOHOL    AS    A    MEDICINE.  49 

handled,  having  even  a  stimulant  action  in  such  circum- 
stances. They  do  not  excite  the  brain  above  the  normal 
standard ;  they  merely  bring  it  up  to  the  normal  work- 
ing, counteracting  the  state  of  depression  in  which  they 
found  it  sunk,  and  thus  approaching  the  character  of  a 
true  tonic.  In  order  to  do  this  accurately  and  tho- 
roughly, however,  it  is  very  plain  that  both  a  careful 
and  skilful  management  of  the  remedy  is  required. 
Like  other  poisons,  it  is  not  to  be  rashly  and  empirically 
prescribed,  or  the  dosing  fixed  by  routine.  The  case 
must  be  suitable,  the  disease  and  the  necessity  for  the 
remedy  must  be  there;  the  dosing  must  be  well  ad- 
justed at  starting,  and  its  effects  must  be  carefully 
watched,  in  order  that  it  may  be  duly  regulated  ac- 
cordingly. 

III.  There  are  some  affections  of  the  heart  in  which 
the  organ  acts  with  great  feebleness ;  the  functions  of 
life  flag  in  consequence,  the  general  circulation  is  insuf- 
ficient, and  danger  to  life  is  apt  to  ensue.  Now,  alcohol 
is  a  stimulant  to  the  heart  and  blood-vessels,  as  well  as 
to  the  nervous  system ;  and  from  small  occasional  doses, 
as  with  the  ordinary  meals,  medical  experience  has 
shown  that  in  such  cases  decided  benefit  may  be  ob- 
tained. 

IV.  Again,  in  these  as  well  as  in  other  cases,  drop- 
sies are  apt  to  occur ;  and  it  becomes  of  importance  to 
stimulate  the  kidneys,  with  a  view  of  increasing  the 
amount  of  their  secretion;  just  as  in  a  water-logged 
ship,  the  pumps  have  to  be  plied  with  increased  energy. 
The  crew  as  they  labor  thus  are  worked  in  gangs  or 
relays,   else    exhaustion   would   paralyse   their  efforts. 

4 


50  alcohol:  its  place. 

Diuretics  are  the  pumping  crew  in  dropsies,  and  they, 
too,  have  to  be  worked  in  relays.  After  a  time,  a 
remedy,  which  at  first  was  very  powerful  and  satisfac- 
tory, loses  its  effect,  and  has  to  be  changed ;  this  in  its 
turn  has  to  give  way  to  a  second,  and  so  on.  Now, 
alcohol  is  a  diuretic  —  take  gin  as  its  most  ordinary 
variety  in  such  repute  —  and  oftentimes  it  is  found 
useful;  not  in  doing  the  whole  work  continuously — not 
ordered  to-day  and  gone  on  with  day  after  day  careless 
of  effects,  but  taking  its  place  in  alternation  with  other 
remedies  of  the  class. 

V.  In  the  advanced  stages  of  inflammation,  more 
especially  when  affecting  internal  organs,  and  in  some 
unhealthy  or  weak  inflammations  from  the  very  begin- 
ning of  their  course,  what  is  called  the  stimulant  system 
of  treatment  is  necessary.  A  condition  of  nervous  de- 
pression sets  in,  resembling  what  qbtains  in  fever,  as 
already  noticed;  and  alcohol,  in  various  doses  and 
forms,  not  only  does  good,  but  is  essential  —  carefully 
and  skilfully  regulated,  however,  as  before.  In  this 
respect  a  great  change  has  taken  place  of  late  years  in 
medical  practice.  Doctors  have  ceased  to  be  the  San- 
grados  they  once  were,  partly  from  alteration  of  views 
as  to  therapeutics  generally,  and  partly  from  change  in 
the  nature  of  disease  itself.  There  has  been  a  remark- 
able change  from  the  old  system  of  bleeding,  purging, 
and  starving  in  inflammatory  affections ;  and,  as  ordina- 
rily happens  in  such  reactions,  examples  have  not  beer 
wanting  of  an  excess  of  reforming  zeal,  carrying  its  pos- 
sessors into  a  dangerous  extreme.  The  time  is  reached, 
no  doubt,  when  there  is  less  risk  of  such  extremes  thar 


ALCOHOL    AS    A    MEDICINE.  51 

formerly ;  the  pendulum  has  lost  its  wide  swing,  and  is 
oscillating,  we  are  fain  to  believe,  pretty  steadily  in  the 
"juste  milieu."  But  there  are  writers  even  now  who 
advocate  the  remedial  use  of  alcoholic  stimulants,  to 
such  an  extent  as  cannot  fail  to  prove  highly  prejudi- 
cial to  the  minds  and  morals,  as  well  as  to  the  bodies, 
of  their  unhappy  patients.  Against  such  flagrant  error 
we  will  not  scruple  to  uplift  our  testimony;  claiming 
for  alcoholics  a  prominent  and  powerful  place  in  the 
treatment  of  inflammatory  disease,  in  certain  stages, 
and  of  certain  forms,  but  denouncing  anything  like  a 
promiscuous  use  of  them,  and  declaring  any  other  than 
their  most  guarded  and  anxious  employment  to  be  both 
unscientific  and  unsafe. 

A  diseased  joint,  or  some  ghastly  sore,  is  pouring  out 
its  cupfuls  of  daily  discharge,  and  hectic  is  steadily  con- 
suming the  patient.  In  such  a  case,  we  cannot  exclude 
wine  and  malt  liquors  from  our  means  of  cure. 

A  fierce  unhealthy  inflammation  is  spreading  along  a 
vein,  or  burrowing  beneath  the  skin  in  erysipelas,  and 
the  man  is  laboring  for  his  life  in  irritative  fever.  In 
such  a  case,  the  medical  attendant  well  knows  that  the 
time  for  alcoholic  stimulus,  on  account  of  nervous  de- 
pression, is  either  already  come  or  not  far  ofi";  and  that 
were  his  hands  tied  up  from  this  remedy,  there  would 
be  but  little  hope  for  his  patient.* 


*-  There  is  a  striking  illustration  of  the  law  of  tolerance  here.  If 
•will  be  afterwards  stated  that  alcohol,  taken  unyiecessarily,  has  a  ten. 
dency  to  produce  unhealthy  inflammations  —  that  is,  inflammations 
of  a  weak  and  bad  type,  running  on  rapidly  into  destructive  suppu- 
rations, and  even  gangrene.     But  ichen  this  kind  of  inflammation  has 


62  alcohol:    ITS    PLACE. 

Or  an  operation  has  been  performed,  and  in  the  sup- 
purative stage  of  the  wound,  whether  from  previous 
exhaustion,  excessive  discharge,  or  accidental  loss  of 
blood,  what  is  called  "sinking"  threatens.  This  consti- 
tutes a  crisis  in  which  all  means  of  stimulating  the  powers 
of  life,  and  more  especially  the  nervous  function,  must 
be  employed  with  promptitude  and  boldness.  And,  in 
consequence,  alcoholics,  once  more,  may  be  brought  into 
appropriate  play. 

All  this  —  and  more  than  this  —  is  true.  These  are 
but  samples  of  the  circumstances  connected  with  inflam- 
mations in  which  alcohol  is  both  a  safe  and  powerful 
remedial  agent.  But  against  a  general  use  of  this  in 
almost  all  inflammations,  and  in  almost  every  stage  of 
them,  we  protest  with  all  the  vehemence  in  our  power. 

Another  evil  we  would  denounce.  A  patient  is  dying. 
An  incurable  disease  is  making  its  closing  grasp  on  the 
vitals,  or  old  age  is  slowly  passing  on  into  extinction  — 
the  flickering  flame  all  but  out.  The  case  is  manifestly 
hopeless ;  health  cannot  be  restored,  and  life  cannot  be 
prolonged  beyond  a  few  hours  at  most.  Is  this  a  case 
for  alcholio  stimulants  ?  Most  certainly  not.  And  yet 
the  practitioner  is  apt  to  fall  into  the  routine  of  practice; 
and  simply  because  it  is  a  state  of  "  sinking,"  to  admin- 
ister wine  and  brandy  in  the  ordinary  way.  There  is  no 
need  for  either  now :  there  will  be  no  tolerance  in  the 
system;  they  will  not  stimulate  and  support;  they  will 
inebriate,  and,  besides  clouding  that  part  of  life  which 
ought  most  of  all  to  be  serene,  will  probably  frustrate 

occurred,  the  medicinal  use  of  alcohol  then  becomes  both  valuable 
and  essential. 


ALCOHOL   AS   A   MEDICINE.  53 

the  professional  intent,  and,  by  producing  reactive  ex- 
haustion, accelerate  the  end.  "  Let  me  go  home  sober," 
was  the  touching  ^expostulation  of  one  so  tried ;  and  she 
was  right. 

VI.  But  to  proceed.  Suppose  that  colic  has  attacked 
a  patient,  or  cramp  in  the  stomach,  or  flatulent  abdomi- 
nal distention,  common  experience  suggests  "  a  dram " 
as  the  cure.  No  doubt  it  may  afford  relief  3  and  when 
nothing  better  can  be  obtained,  by  all  means  let  it  be 
had  recourse  to.  But  remember  that  there  are  other 
remedies  at  least  equally  good,  and  many  far  more  ap- 
propriate. And,  furthermore,  when  a  man  prescribes 
this  for  himself,  let  him  be  sure  of  his  diagnosis.  If 
the  pain  be  that  of  cramp,  or  a  colic,  or  a  flatulency, 
good  and  well,  the  "dram^^  may  do  no  great  harm;  if 
it  be  not,  however,  but,  on  the  contrary,  the  sign  of  an 
acute  inflammation  already  set  in  (as  it  may  be),  the 
"  dram ''  will  not  only  fail  to  relieve,  but  must  inevitably 
do  harm,  acting  as  fuel  to  fire.  And,  moreover,  let  him 
beware  of  magnifying  some  trumpery  uneasiness  into 
such  a  state  of  things  as  to  warrant  alcoholics.  A  man 
fond  of  the  latter,  on  any  plea,  may,  almost  unknown  to 
himself,  be  too  easily  persuaded  that  a  physical  necessity 
has  arisen  for  their  use — a  failing  this  from  which  even 
the  lower  animals  would  not  seem  to  be  altogether 
exempt.  In  a  home-park  a  pensioned  pony  was  leisurely 
spending  the  evening  of  his  days,  under  the  kind  care 
of  his  master's  widow.  One  day  she  was  alarmed  by 
seeing  the  poor  beast  rolling  on  the  ground,  evidently 
in  pain.  The  groom  was  summoned ;  his  diagnosis  was 
prompt  —  colic;   and    his   prescription    consisted  of  a 


64  alcohol:  its  place. 

couple  of  bottles  of  mulled  ale,  vliicli  the  pony  drank 
readily,  and  with  obvious  relief  In  a  day  or  two,  how- 
ever, the  attack  recurred,  and  the  dose  had  to  be  re- 
peated. In  a  few  days  more  there  was  another  relapse, 
when  the  same  remedy  sufficed  for  cure.  But  after  a 
time,  the  rollings  and  kickings  having  become  matters 
of  daily  occurrence,  and  always  in  front  of  the  drawing- 
room  windows,  suspicion  arose  as  to  their  truthfulness ; 
and  a  little  watching  convicted  the  poor  pony,  like  many 
another  pensioner,  of  shamming  the  disease  for  the  sake 
of  the  cure.  The  ale  was  accordingly  withheld,  and  the 
colic  did  not  return. 

VII.  Exhaustion  may  affect  the  frame  from  sudden 
causes  —  such  as  great  bodily  effort,  or  intense  mental 
emotion,  or  exposure  to  extreme  cold.  In  these  circum- 
stances, it  may  be  necessary  to  make  use  of  alcohol  as  a 
stimulant  of  the  nervous  and  circulating  systems,  perhaps 
with  other  remedies ;  all  the  more,  if  the  patient  be  under 
the  necessity — real  or  supposed  —  of  remaining  exposed 
to  the  depressing  cause,  for  such  a  time  and  to  such  an 
extent  as  his  unaided  powers  obviously  could  not  suffice 
to  meet. 

VIII.  But,  besides  these  acute  cases  of  physical  and 
mental  exhaustion  from  overwork  or  other  cause,  there 
are  chronic  cases,  equally  important,  and  far  more  com- 
mon. The  clerk,  the  shopman,  the  sewing  girl,  the 
factory  worker,  the  merchant,  the  minister,  the  teacher, 
the  student,  the  statesman  —  every  laborer  by  hand  and 
head  is,  in  these  days  of  rivalry  and  competition,  prone 
to  overwork.  He  sets  himself  to  a  daily  task  beyond 
what  his  natural  powers  can  overtake  without  help  j  and 


ALCOHOL    AS    A    MEDICINE.  55 

when  they  either  fail  to  do  the  task,  or  accomplish  it 
only  at  the  price  of  thorough  exhaustion,  he  bethinks 
himself  of  a  remedy.  Obviously,  were  he  to  take  time 
to  deliberate,  he  would  find  two  alternatives  awaiting  his 
decision :  either  to  diminish  the  amount  of  work,  or  to 
retain  that,  and  seek  to  increase  the  working  power  by 
artificial  means.  In  general,  however,  he  sees  but  the 
latter ,  in  his  haste  he  adopts  it ',  and  as  day  by  day  he 
works  on,  attaining  his  object,  if  not  with  ease,  at  least 
without  absolute  prostration  as  before,  he  looks  to  the 
wine  or  brandy  bottle  as  the  best  of  auxiliaries  and  the 
truest  of  all  friends.  He  commits  a  sad  blunder,  how- 
ever— often  a  fatal  one.  Such  nervous  stimulation  will 
seem  to  answer  well  enough  on  an  occasion.  "When  no 
actual  increase  of  vital  strength  is  to  be  had  —  by  food 
and  rest — a  spur  to  insure  the  using  up  of  the  last  resi- 
duum may  suffice  for  once,  in  a  way;  but  necessarily  all 
the  more  time  will  be  afterwards  required  to  recover 
thoroughly  from  the  consequent  exhaustion.  And  when 
such  shift  or  substitution  is  not  occasional  but  constant, 
— and  when,  moreover,  there  is  no  sufficient  correspond- 
ence in  the  amount  of  compensating  rest  —  the  working 
organism  must  soon  come  to  be  altogether  in  a  most  arti- 
ficial and  unsafe  condition.  It  will  resemble  an  over- 
tasked mercantile  house,  supported  on  bills  and  other 
means  of  "  accommodation  f'  the  work  is  done  at  a  great 
cost ;  and  at  any  time,  by  failure  of  the  artificial  support 
on  the  one  hand  (even  for  a  day),  or  by  a  sudden  in- 
crease of  outward  pressure  on  the  other,  the  whole  con- 
cern may  fall  to  pieces ;  either  stopping  altogether,  or 
dragging  out  a  crushed  existence  in  insolvency. 


56  alcohol:  ITS  place. 

If  the  man  will  work  on  under  his  burden,  it  is  vital 
strength  that  he  must  have  increased,  to  meet  and  sus- 
tain the  increased  labor.  Let  him  get  that,  if  he  can, 
by  the  suitable  means ;  and  certainly  alcohol  is  not  one 
of  them.  But  if  he  cannot,  then  let  him,  like  a  wise 
man,  accept  the  only  remaining  safe  alternative  —  dimi- 
nution in  the  amount  of  labor.  Alcohol  gives  no  addi- 
tion to  the  amount  of  vital  strength ;  it  merely  urges  the 
more  rapid  and  thorough  using  up  of  what  you  already 
have.  That  may  do  well  enough,  as  has  been  said,  for 
an  occasional  paroxysm  of  work;  but  its  continuance 
would  only  consume  all  the  sooner  the  scanty  existing 
store.  Excessive  work,  sustained  on  natural  power,  will 
exhaust  and  lead  to  a  fall ;  but  the  fall  is  not  formidable 
— it  is  not  from  a  great  height — the  system  is  still  elastic, 
and  will  recover  itself  after  a  while.  But  excessive 
work  on  alcoholic  stimulus,  while  it  may  postpone  the 
fall,  renders  that  far  more  serious  when  it  comes  —  from 
a  greater  height,  with  greater  impetus,  and  more  likely 
to  produce  a  fatal  injury. 

IX.  We  have  seen  that  the  alcoholic  stimulants  are 
of  service  when  the  system  labors  under  nervous  depres- 
sion, in  consequence  of  active  disease  —  such  as  fever,  or 
unhealthy  inflammations.  They  may  also  prove  bene- 
ficial in  cases  of  chronic  general  debility,  early  super 
vening  on  the  frame,  and  settling  down  on  it  with  a  firm 
hold  for  life  —  or  sometimes  seeming  to  be  born  into  the 
world  as  part  and  parcel  of  the  patient.  In  these  cases 
it  may  be  found  difficult  to  get  a  sufficient  quantity  of 
food  taken  and  digested,  so  as  to  nourish  the  body  suit- 
ably, and  enable  it  to  meet  even  a  small  amount  of  work, 


ALCOHOL    AS    A    MEDICINE.  57 

without  an  artificial  stimulation  both  of  the  coats  of  the 
stomach  and  of  the  nervous  system :  and  therefor^,  along 
with  other  suitable  remedies,  the  use  of  small  quantities 
of  wine,  or  other  alcoholic  stimulant,  from  time  to  time, 
may  under  such  circumstances  be  not  only  legitimate  but 
expedient. 

X.  There  is  another  class  of  cases,  somewhat  resem- 
bling the  preceding,  but  with  this  important  difierence : 
the  condition  is  not  congenital,  but  acquired,  and  of 
comparatively  recent  origin — the  result  of  other  disease, 
or  of  excessive  labor  either  of  body  or  mind.  Here  the 
alcoholic  stimulus  is  appropriate  only  for  a  brief  period, 
so  as  to  keep  the  patient  temporarily  afloat,  and  enable 
him  to  overtake  some  special  object  in  view.  The  right 
treatment  is  to  abandon  labor,  and  take  rest,  with  other 
suitable  means  for  renewing  the  vital  strength,  as  has 
already  been  stated. 

It  may  be  well  to  correct  here  an  important  error,  yet 
very  current,  in  regard  to  the  medicinal  use  of  alcohol. 
People  regard  it  as  a  simple  and  common  tonic;  and  are 
ready  to  accept  its  supposed  help  as  such,  in  every  form 
of  weakness  and  general  disorder  of  health.  But  it  is 
ordinarily  no  true  tonic.  In  its  primary  effect  it  is 
merely  a  stimulant,  as  has  been  stated,  with  narcotic 
reaction  when  in  large  doses.  And  in  its  secondary 
action  it  is  the  reverse  of  tonic.  For  while  iron,  for 
example,  enters  the  blood  and  acts  beneficially  thereon, 
alcohol  entering  the  blood  acts  injuriously — so  inju- 
riously, that  even  its  advocates  admit,  as  we  have  seen, 
that  were  it  constantly  present  the  result  would  be  fatal. 
Alcohol,  as  a  medicine,  is  very  valuable ;  but  not  as  a 


58  alcohol:    ITS    PLACE. 

true  tonic.  As  formerly  stated  (page  49),  it  only  ap- 
proaches that  character  in  cases  of  morbid  and  extreme 
nervous  depression.  Then,  and  then  only,  can  it  be 
pushed  with  safety.  Then  its  continued  presence  in  the 
blood  is  not  only  not  injurious,  but  positively  beneficial, 
by  virtue  of  the  law  of  tolerance.  This  is  a  striking 
example,  indeed,  of  the  truth,  that  many  dosihgs  and 
drugs  which  tend  to  kill  in  health,  tend  to  cure  and 
keep  alive  in  that  special  form  of  disease  which  we  know 
by  experience  demands  their  use.  Keep  alcohol  con- 
stantly in  the  blood,  during  health,  and  "  the  result  may 
be  fatal."  Keep  alcohol  constantly  in  the  blood,  for  a 
time,  during  typhus  fever,  or  shock,  and  it  will  show  once 
more  a  just  claim  to  its  old  designation  —  "Aqua  vitse." 
Let  it  not  be  used,  then,  as  an  ordinary  tonic ;  and,  at 
the  same  time,  let  not  the  mistakes  of  those  who  do  so 
misapply  it  detract  from  its  reputation  in  those  circum- 
stances to  which  its  use  is  really  applicable. 

I  might  greatly  prolong  the  consideration  of  this 
subject;  but  enough  has  surely  been  said  to  show  what 
an  important  place  alcohol  holds  in  the  materia  medica. 
It  is,  in  truth,  a  medicinal  agent  of  great  power  and 
value  J  never  to  be  lightly  prescribed,  and  always  to  be 
carefully  watched  and  regulated  in  its  administration. 

Sundry  simple  rules  apply  to  its  use  : — 1.  Make  sure 
that  the  case  is  suitable.  There  is  no  more  fatal  error 
than  error  in  diagnosis :  it  is  "  taking  in  a  wrong  figure 
at  the  very  start  of  the  calculation ; "  no  wonder  if  the 
final  summation  should  bo  ruinously  false. -^2.  Remem- 
ber the  law  of  tolerance,  and  its  converse.  If  diagnosis 
is  right,  the  agent  will  do  good  and  no  harm;  if,  on  the 


ALCOHOL    AS    A    MEDICINE.  59 

contrary,  the  diagnosis  is  wrong,  the  agent  will  do  harm 
and  no  good.  In  other  words,  if  there  be  no  medical 
necessity  for  alcoholic  drinks,  their  use  even  in  small 
quantity  must  fail  to  benefit,  and  must  injure  more  or 
less.  On  the  one  hand,  if  there  be  a  necessity  for 
alcoholics,  don't  be  afraid  to  give  them,  for  the  system 
will  bear  them  well  so  long  as  that  necessity  exists ;  on 
the  other  hand,  if  there  be  no  such  necessity,  be  afraid 
to  give  them,  even  in  small  quantity,  for  the  system 
cannot  then  receive  them  with  impunity.  Such  is  the 
double  play  of  the  law  of  tolerance.  No  doubt,  you  find  . 
men  apparently  in  good  health  who  take  daily  so  many 
glasses  of  wine,  or  their  equivalent  in  spirits  or  malt 
liquors,  and  who  nevertheless  seem  none  the  worse. 
But  to  this  the  answer  is  twofold:  First,  the  absence 
of  evil  in  effect  may  be  only  a  "  seeming."  There  may 
be  a  gradual  and  insidious  evil  at  work,  though  unob- 
served^ much  as  the  malaria  does  not  at  the  first  seem 
hurtful,  yet  is  gradually  accumulating  its  power  within 
till  it  burst  out  in  the  formidable  fever.*  Second,  the 
goodness  of  health  may  be  but  a  "  seeming."  May  not  ) 
the  unnecessary  use  of  alcoholics  have  engendered  a 
diseased  state  of  the  system,  which  requires  a  continu- 
ance of  the  alcoholics  to  counteract  it  ?  Much  as  in  the 
case  of  the  smoker  of  tobacco  or  opium :  —  in  perfect 
health,  the  drug  would  sicken  or  stupify  him;  but  being     1 

*  The  famous  Alexis  St.  Martin's  stomach,  it  will  be  remembered, 
had  a  window;  and,  looking  through  that,  one  could  often  note 
iuflaming  patches  on  the  mucous  coat,  the  result  of  alcoholic  in- 
dulgence, though  Alexis  felt  no  headache,  thirst,  fever,  or  other 
inconvenience. 


60  alcohol:  its  place. 

in  a  diseased  state  —  in  consequence  of  the  drug's  pre- 
vious consumption  when  not  required  —  the  smoking 
seems  rather  beneficial  than  otherwise.  In  other  words, 
and  in  plainer  language,  the  man  apparently  in  health 
who  takes  alcoholics  habitually  with  seeming  impunity 
—  nay,  with  a  feeling  of  benefit,  as  well  as  of  relish  — 
is  probably  in  the  same  state,  though  of  a  minor  degree, 
as  the  confirmed  tippler  or  drunkard,  who  has  depressed 
and  shaken  his  nervous  system  by  excessive  indulgence 
in  alcoholics,  and  who  needs  must  have  his  alcoholics 
again  to  raise  his  nervous  system  out  of  such  depression 
— temporary  and  deceitful  though  such  raising  be.  The 
difierence  between  the  two  men  is  in  degree  only,  not 
in  kind.  In  both  there  is  a  depression  produced  and  a 
stimulus  given,  and  the  agent  of  depression  and  of 
stimulation  is  one  and  the  same. — 3.  Eemember  in  suit- 
able cases  the  medicinal  mode  of  administration.  The 
alcohol  is  not  given  in  such  dose  as  to  produce  its  second 
or  sedative  effect — that  is  truly  poisonous.  Its  first  or 
stimulant  action  is  wanted;  and,  to  secure  that,  the  doses 
must  be  small ;  their  repetition  being  in  every  case  regu- 
lated by  the  effect.  —  4.  Supposing  the  diagnosis  and 
administration  right,  remember  there  is  a  time  to  cease 
from  its  use.  This  is  most  important,  yet  too  often 
overlooked.  Suppose  a  medical  man  to  order  blue-pill 
once  or  twice  a  day,  and,  overlooking  its  effects,  to  forget 
to  stop  it  at  the  proper  time.  Perhaps  the  first  intima- 
tion of  his  error  would  be  the  discovery  of  intense 
salivation,  with  loose  teeth,  swollen  gums,  and  ulcerated 
tongue,  in  his  unfortunate  patient  —  his  constitution 
mayhap  hurt  irretrievably.     Or  he   orders   lead,  and 


ALCOHOL    AS    A    MEDICINE.  61 

forgets  that  he  has  done  so,  till  the  man  is  struck  with 
a  colic  or  a  palsy.  Such  mistakes  are  very  rarely  made 
— just  because  their  detection  were  easy.  But  a  pre- 
cisely similar  mistake  is  far  from  rare.  Alcoholics  are 
ordered,  rightly  or  wrongly;  the  effects  are  not  watched; 
their  use  is  not  stopped  at  the  proper  time ;  and  the  first 
intimation  of  the  blunder  may  be  the  painful  discovery 
that  the  man  has  become  a  drunkard.  I  would  not  be 
uncharitable  to  my  professional  brethren ;  but  I  would 
entreat  them  to  consider  this  matter  well — satisfied  as  I 
am  that  many  a  case  of  hopeless  intemperance,  especially 
among  the  better  classes,  owes  its  origin  to  ill-regulated 
medical  administration. 

Or  the  evil  may  fall  short  of  this;  and,  in  illustration, 
take  another  case.  Suppose  a  medical  man  to  order 
opium,  to  relieve  pain  or  procure  sleep,  in  needful  and 
urgent  circumstances;  and  that  he  neglects  either  to 
regulate  its  dose,  or  to  order  its  discontinuance  when 
the  necessity  for  its  use  has  ceased.  The  convalescent, 
improperly  left  to  himself,  finds,  first,  that  he  must  in- 
crease the  dose  to  attain  the  ordinary  effect;  and,  se- 
condly, that  after  a  time  he  can  ill  do  without  it.  Ere 
ever  he  is  aware,  he  becomes  an  opium-eater — the  victim 
of  an  infirmity  most  difficult  of  cure.  And  so  with  the 
alcohol.  Left  without  due  control,  the  dose  is  increased, 
and  the  habit  becomes  confirmed ;  the  system  refuses  to 
part  willingly  with  its  use ;  and  the  man,  besides  being 
brought  into  a  morbid  state  of  bodily  frame,  is  in  ex- 
treme moral  danger  of  intemperance. 


62         alcohol:  ITS  PLACE. 
ALCOHOL  AS  FOOD. 

Here  is  the  fundamental  and  fatal  error :  men  esteem- 
ing that  to  be  food,  and  using  it  as  such,  which  is  really 
not  food,  but  physic. 

Food,  properly  so  called,  is  that  which  enters  the 
stomach,  and  is  thence  absorbed  into  the  general  circu- 
lation, with  the  double  object  of  nourishing  the  body 
and  maintaining  its  due  temperature.  Such  food  meets 
with  a  solvent  in  the  natural  secretions  of  the  stomach, 
and  of  other  organs  connected  with  the  chyle-making 
apparatus  —  such  as  the  salivary  glands,  the  liver,  the 
pancreas;  and,  besides,  a  solvent  is  needful  also  from 
without  —  holding  the  food  in  solution  at  the  time  of 
being  taken,  or  swallowed  along  with  it,  or  after  it,  in 
sips  or  draughts.  Now,  can  alcohol  be  duly  entered 
here  as  food,  or  solvent  for  food  ?  Not  as  the  latter,  cer- 
tainly. It  refuses  to  act  along  with  the  gastric  juice. 
"It  is  a  remarkable  fact,"  says  Dr.  Dundas  Thomson, 
"'that  alcohol,  when  added  to  the  digestive  fluid,  pro- 
duces a  white  precipitate,  so  that  the  fluid  is  no  longer 
capable  of  digesting  animal  or  vegetable  matter."  "  The 
use  of  alcoholic  stimulants,"  say  Todd  and  Bowman, 
"  retards  digestion  by  coagulating  the  pepsin  (an  essen- 
tial element  of  the  gastric  juice),  and  thereby  interfering 
with  its  action.  Were  it  not  that  wine  and  spirits  are 
rapidly  absorbed,  the  introduction  of  these  into  the 
stomach  in  any  quantity  would  be  a  compkte  bar  to  the 
digestion  of  the  food,  as  the  pepsin  would  be  precipi- 
tated from  solution  as  quickly  as  it  was  formed  by  the 
stomach." 


ALCOHOL    AS    FOOD.  63 

In  the  laboratory  of  the  pharmaceutist,  alcohol  is  very 
valuable  as  a  solvent;  it  holds  many  things  in  admirable 
solution,  and  many  a  good  tincture  it  makes.  But  in 
the  living  stomach  of  man — which  ought  to  be  no  drug- 
shop — alcohol  tends  to  harden  and  coagulate,  rather  than 
to  soften  and  dissolve.  ^^  It  is  through  the  mediuni  of 
the  water  contained  in  the  animal  body,"  says  Carpen- 
ter, "  that  all  its  vital  functions  are  carried  on.  No  other 
liquid  than  water  can  act  as  a  solvent  for  the  various 
articles  of  food  which  are  taken  into  the  stomach." 
Water  dissolves  them  there;  water  carries  them  into 
the  blood,  and  through  the  frame ;  and  water  helps  to 
work  them  off  again  when  useless.  Indeed,  water  seems 
to  have  a  very  remarkable  power  in  depuration  of  the 
system  from  the  noxious  presence  of  effete  material  — 
more  especially  when  taken  beyond  the  limits  of  what 
mere  slaking  of  thirst  requires.  And  on  this  water- 
power  J  no  doubt,  much  of  the  success  of  "  the  water- 
cure"  depends. 

But  if  alcohol  be  no  solvent  of  food,  is  it  food  itself? 
Let  us  see.  Can  it  nourish  or  repair  the  waste  of  tis- 
sue? Not  at  all.  It  contains  no  sufficient  chemical 
constitution  for  that  end ;  and  besides,  as  we  have  seen, 
it  is  conveyed  uncTiatiged,  into  the  blood,  and  so  circu- 
lates there  until  either  disposed  of  by  combustion  in  the 
lungs,  or  removed  (more  or  less  modified  then)  by  the 
organs  of  excretion. 

Does  it  help  to  maintain  due  temperature  ?  It  is  only 
too  ready  to  do  so.  It  is  very  forward  to  be  burnt  in 
the  lungs.  But  is  its  action  there  desirable?  The 
mixed  ordinary  food  of  man  (as  beef,  bread,  and  vege- 


64  alcohol:  its   place. 

tables)  which  nourishes  his  body — doing  specially  and 
well  what  alcohol  cannot  do  at  all  —  contains  not  only 
the  peculiar  materials  for  nutrition,  but  more  or  less  of 
fat  or  oilj  and  sugar,  or  matter  convertible  into  sugar. 
Now  these  (especially  the  oil)  are  very  suitable  for  oxi- 
dation by  the  lungs, — hence  often  termed  "respiratory 
food ; "  and  their  peculiar  function  seems  to  be  the  un- 
dergoing of  that  process,  with  a  view  to  maintain  tem- 
perature, in  so  far  as  such  maintenance  may  be  neces- 
sary, in  addition  to  what  is  done  by  oxidation  of  the 
waste  material  returning  in  the  venous  blood,  as  formerly 
stated  (page  17).  In  other  words,  the  natural  arrange- 
ment as  to  maintaining  temperature  seems  to  be  as  fol- 
lows :  —  Probably  every  act  of  nutrition  and  every  act 
of  disintegration  of  tissue — the  passing  of  fluids  into  a 
solid,  and  of  solids  into  a  fluid  condition  —  is  attended 
with  more  or  less  production  of  heat  (page  20) ;  a  spe- 
cial supply  of  spare  oxygen  being  provided  for  that 
purpose.  Besides,  the  disintegrated  and  waste  mate- 
rial* in  the  venous  blood  is  burned  off,  combining 
directly  with  oxygen  taken  into  the  lungs.  And  any 
further  combustion  which  may  be  necessary  for  com- 
pleting the  efiiciency  of  the  warming  apparatus,  is 
effected  by  means  of  the  oil  and  sugar,  more  especially 
the  former,  with  ordinary  food  supplies.  Now,  it  is 
ascertained  that  in  ordinary  food,  received  in  even 
moderate  quantity,  there  is  not  only  enough  of  these 

*  It  is  supposed,  as  formerly  stated  (page  34),  that  the  waste 
material  is,  in  its  venous  transit  to  the  lungs,  converted  into  a  fatty 
substance,  probably  by  the  action  of  the  liver,  for  the  purpose  of 
readily  undergoing  this  combustion. 


ALCOHOL     AS     TOO  1).  bO 

combustible  materials  to  insure  sufficient  temperature, 
but  more  than  enough — the  superfluity  being  stored  up, 
as  it  were,  in  the  ordinary  fatty  tissue  throughout  the 
body,  to  meet  accidental  scantiness  of  supply,  through 
long  fasts  or  famine. 

Suppose,  now,  that  alcohol  is  taken  in  any  conside- 
rable quantity,  along  with  the  ordinary  supply  of  food. 
It  gets  speedily  into  the  blood,  and  into  the  lungs. 
There  it  has  a  greater  appetite  for  oxygen  than  any  of 
the  other  combustible  materials  we  have  mentioned,  and 
accordingly  is  burned  off  first.  The  temperature  may 
be  maintained  in  this  way,  no  doubt.  But  what  hap- 
pens in  consequence  of  the  temperature  being  thus 
maintained  ?  Two  things ;  or  one  of  two  things,  at 
the  least:  —  The  oil  and  sugar  are  not  burnt  off  suffi- 
ciently, and  these  materials  accumulate  unduly  in  the 
body;  or  the  waste  material  of  the  blood  is  not  burnt 
off  sufficiently,  and  this  accumulates  unduly  in  the  body 
— poisoning  the  blood,  and  producing  the  serious  conse- 
quences formerly  spoken  of;  or  both  of  these  results 
may  occur  —  as  we  believe  most  frequently  is  the  case. 
And  a  third  evil  is  also  possible :  The  "  spare  oxygen," 
as  we  have  termed  it  —  intended  to  circulate  with  the 
blood  to  the  remotest  parts  of  the  system,  and  to  act  an 
important  part  during  both  the  waste  of  tissue  and  its 
repair,  so  generating  heat  —  may  also  be  seriously  en- 
croached upon ;  so  great  and  greedy  is  the  appetite  of 
alcohol  for  this  substance. 

The  obvious  deduction  is  surely  this :  that  when  man 
receives  a  fair  average  supply  of  food,  he  obtains  at  least 
enough  of  combustible  material  thereby;  and  that  when 
5 


66  ALCOHOL:    ITS    PLACE. 

alcoliol  is  taken  in  addition,  it  is  unnecessary;  tlie  act  is 
a  work  of  pure  supererogation  —  so  far  as  warmtli-giving 
intra-combustion  is  concerned.  And  further,  the  alcoliol 
so  taken  is  not  only  unnecessary,  it  is  also  hurtful,  by 
preventing  certain  changes  in  the  constituents  of  the 
blood,  the  occurrence  of  which  is  essential  to  health. 
Alcohol,  in  short,  is  in  such  circumstances  not  only  un- 
necessary but  injurious.  It  is  not  food;  but  a  chemical 
or  medicinal  agent,  which,  when  ordinary  food  is  absent 
or  greatly  defective,  or  when  the  emergency  is  such  that 
there  is  no  time  to  wait  for  the  digestion  of  food,  may 
be  employed  as  a  substitute,  so  far  as  the  maintenance 
of  temperature  is  concerned.  Or,  once  more  to  turn  the 
phrase,  alcohol's  place  is  not  among  the  articles  of  food 
proper,  and  it  ought  neither  to  he  classed  among  these,  nor 
used  along  with  them.  Its  only  pretension  to  be  regarded 
as  food  is  founded  on  its  combustibility  in  the  lungs,  so 
gendering  warmth ;  and  every  man  who  has  enough,  or 
nearly  enough,  of  ordinary  food,  has  no  need  of  any  such 
thing ;  it  can  do  no  good  in  this  way,  and  must  do  harm 
in  other  ways. 

To  him  only  is  it  allowable  —  as  a  combustible — who 
is  suffering  both  cold  and  fasting — who,  during  extreme 
cold,  has  either  no  proper  food  to  eat,  or  no  time  to  wait 
for  its  heat-giving  operation,  subsequent  to  leisurely 
digestion.  He  may  use  it  rationally;  but,  as  he  does  so, 
let  him  remember  that  it  has  other  properties  besides 
those  of  a  combustible,  and  that  it  is  safe  only  for  the 
emergency.  To  continue  its  use,  as  a  substitute  for 
food,  is  to  court,  or  rather  secure  the  invasion  of  those 
serious  evils,  which,  in  a  previous   chapter,  we   have 


ALCOHOL   AS    FOOD.  67 

seen  attendant  on  tlie  free  and  habitual  use  of  tliis 
powerful  agent. 

There  has  been  a  good  deal  of  quibbling  about  the 
words  "force"  and  "food."  The  alcoholists,  having  a 
shrewd  suspicion  that  they  cannot  successfully  establish 
their  client's  claim  to  rank  as  food,  in  the  true  and 
common  sense  of  the  term,  insist  greatly  on  its  being  at 
least  "  force ;"  and  that  if  this  be  not  actually  the  same 
as  food,  it  is  at  least  its  equivalent.  But  what  is  force  ? 
"All  experience  proves,"  says  Liebig,  "  that  there  is  in 
the  organism  only  one  source  of  mechanical  power ;  and 
this  is  the  conversion  of  living  tissue  into  lifeless  amor- 
phous compounds."  The  crumbling  down  of  living 
solids  into  what  at  the  time  is  little  better  than  mere 
dead  matter,  is  the  source  of  the  power  whereby  every 
living  act  is  performed,  whether  of  muscle  or  nerve. 
The  generation  of  this  pulp  out  of  living  solids  seems  to 
be  the  source  of  the  power  of  the  human  mechanism, 
somewhat  as  the  generation  of  "steam"  out  of  water 
and  coke  is  the  source  of  the  power  of  a  steam-engine. 
"Now,"  say  they,  "if  a  man  takes  alcohol,  this  ^ force' 
is  generated  more  copiously,  and  the  machinery  works 
with  greater  velocity  and  power."  Yes.  But  how  ?  and 
for  how  long?  How?  The  alcohol  does  not  act  by 
contributing  any  living  tissue  to  crumble,  or  by  pro- 
viding aay  substitute  for  it;  but  by  causing  merely  a 
more  rapid  and  continued  crumbling  of  what  is  already 
there ;  compelling  you  to  burn  your  coke  and  water  faster 
than  you  were  doing,  and  probably  faster  than  you  ought 
to  do — so  making  more  steam;  but  giving  you  no  addi- 


68  alcohol:    ITS    I'LACE. 

tion  to  your  coke  and  water,  or  providing  any  substitute 
to  make  steam  of.  So  much  for  the  "  how  V  And  as 
for  the  "  how  long  ?"  It  is  plain  that  if  the  settlement 
of  this  be  left  to  the  alcohol  alone,  the  mechanism  will 
soon  be  silent.  The  continuance  of  work  for  any  con- 
siderable time,  under  such  circumstances,  will  depend 
upon  the  activity  with  which  food  is  supplied — ^nourish- 
ing food  —  so  as  to  atone,  if  possible,  for  the  increased 
coDSumption  of  the  organism.  The  man  working  under 
alcoholic  stimulus,  therefore,  ought  to  take  more  food, 
and  digest  it  thoroughly  too,  than  when  working  without 
such  stimulus.  Yet  what  is  the  fact  ?  He  takes  less. 
And  the  inevitable  consequence  must  be  exhaustion  — 
premature  and  in  excess.  Alcohol  is  not  "force"  itself, 
but  only  the  excitant  of  "  force ;"  and  its  invariable  effect 
is,  while  producing  an  increased  expenditure  of  ^' force" 
for  a  time,  to  bring  the  supply  of  that  force  to  an  un- 
timely close.  On  a  railway,  it  may  be  quite  possible  so 
to  hurry  power  and  speed  as  to  make  a  show  of  increased 
traffic ;  but  if  the  upshot  be  to  consume  "  the  rolling 
stock"  at  a  double  rate,  without  doing  anything  to 
maintain  "the  plant,"  this  will  be  found  an  expensive 
mode  of  managing  the  line  —  and  withal  not  very  safe. 
Our  opponents  plume  themselves  greatly  on  the  fact 
that  the  working-man  takes  less  food  with  the  alcohol 
than  without  it,  and  seek  to  make  argumentative  capital 
thereof;  inferring  this  to  be  a  proof  that  the  alcohol 
taken  is  a  substitute  and  equivalent  for  the  portion  of 
food  which  is  not  taken,  and  which  would  otherwise 
have  been  consumed.  "  Thus,"  they  say,  "  alcohol  may 
be  useful  to  the  poor  man  in  an  economical  sense,  and 


ALCOHOL   AS    FOOD.  69 

to  the  dyspeptic  man  by  saving  heavy  meals."  But  this 
is  a  mere  assumption.  And  no  reasonable  man  can 
doubt  that  the  explanation  is  quite  diiFerent  from  their 
statement  of  it.  Habitual  use  of  alcohol,  even  in 
"  moderation,"  diminishes  the  appetite,  as  we  have  seen, 
by  exciting  a  direct  and  unfavorable  action  upon  the 
stomach.*  The  man,  in  virtue  of  this  morbid  condition, 
comes  to  have  a  less  craving  for  and  a  less  power  of 
digesting  food.j*  Therefore  he  takes  less.  And  the 
portion  of  food  which  he  does  not  take,  and  otherwise 
would  have  taken,  is  simply  lost  to  his  system  by  the 
alcohol.  This,  moreover,  has  kept  waste  old  material 
circulating  in  the  blood ;  and  that  is  offered  to  the  system 
for  nourishment  in  a  fatty  and  fusted  form.  There  will 
be  no  vigorous  appetite  for  fresh  food,  till  that  waste  ma- 
terial is  used  up  and  got  rid  of  somehow  —  while,  mean- 
time, every  successive  dose  of  alcohol  prevents  the  dis- 
appearance of  this  obstructive  waste  by  appropriating 
the  oxj^gen  instead.  And  the  question  comes  to  be  — 
Whether  shall  we  take  alcohol,  eat  less,  and  be  imper- 
fectly nourished ;  or  take  no  alcohol,  eat  more,  and  be 
nourished  well  ?  Whether  shall  we  thrive  better  on  a 
small  quantity  of  new  nutritive  material,  with  a  great 

*  "  I  cannot  eat  but  little  meat, 
My  stomach  is  not  good; 
But  sure  I  think  that  I  can  drink 
With  him  who  wears  a  hood." 

f  "  I  love  no  rost,  but  a  nut-broun  toste, 
And  a  crab  laid  on  the  fire; 
A  little  bread  shall  do  my  stead  — 
Much  bread  I  nought  desire." 


70  alcohol:    ITSPLACE. 

deal  of  what  is  old  and  mouldy;  or  on  a  constant  and 
fresh  supply  of  new  material,  in  sufficient  abundance  to 
dispense  with  the  old — which,  being  then  in  all  respects 
useless,  is  extruded  from  the  system  ?  Even  one  less 
qualified  than  a  "  licensed  victualler "  should  have  no 
difficulty  in  giving  the  right  answer — "  The  fresh  article, 
if  you  please ;  and  plenty  of  it." 

Adopting  the  tactics  of  the  alcoholists,  we  could  make 
out  almost  as  good  a  case  for  tartar  emetic  as  for  alcohol. 
A  patient  at  one  time  had  much  too  good  an  appetite, 
to  his  thinking ;  he  was  getting  stout  and  pursy ;  and 
by  no  ordinary  means  could  he  keep  the  demands  of  his 
clamorous  stomach  within  reasonable  bounds.  At  last  a 
happy  idea  struck  him.  He  would  have  recourse  to 
physic,  so  as  to  produce  slight  sickness  —  a  morbid  con- 
dition ;  and,  accordingly,  a  small  dose  of  tartar  emetic 
was  taken,  a  short  time  before  every  meal.  This  suc- 
ceeded admirably ;  the  appetite  lessened ;  the  "  too  solid 
flesh"  began  to  melt;  and  the  patient  was  quite  satisfied. 
Now,  this  tartar  emetic,  in  one  sense,  took  the  place  of 
food ;  therefore  was  a  substitute  for  food ;  therefore  was 
equivalent  to  food;  and  therefore  was  food.  "  Quod  erat 
demonstrandum ;"  and  also  "Quod  est  absurdum." 

That  plea  will  not  hold  good,  then.  But  they  have 
many  shifts;  and,  once  again,  they  put  it  in  this  form. 
"  See  how  little  ordinary  food  the  drunkard  subsists  on. 
Try  you  to  live  on  it  without  the  alcohol,  and  you  will 
die  of  starvation  in  a  month."  Now,  even  were  we  to 
admit  the  fact — which  we  do  not  —  the  inference  is  ob- 
viously fallacious.  It  is  true  that  you  or  I,  as  healthy 
men,  could  not  live  as  we  ought  on  such  a  small  allow- 


ALCOHOL    AS    POOD.  71 

ance  of  food ;  but,  keeping  away  the  '^  alcoholismus " 
(page  30),  reduce  us  to  the  same  miserable  condition  of 
body  as  the  poor  drunkard  has — little  better  than  a  vital 
zero — and  then  the  same  wretched  life  —  if  life  it  may 
be  called  —  could  be  managed  by  either  of  us,  fully  as 
well  without  as  with  the  alcohol. 

This  puts  me  in  mind  of  still  another  subterfuge. 
"All  respiratory  materials  —  fit  for  pulmonary  combus- 
tion —  are  really  food/'  say  they,  "  and  should  be  con- 
sidered as  such ;  and  alcohol,  all  must  admit,  has  pecu- 
liar claims  in  that  way;  therefore  it  is  food."  To  that 
we  answer  by  proposing  a  simple  experiment,  in  return 
for  their  courteous  invitation  to  make  trial  on  our  part 
of  the  drunkard's  pittance.  Try  you  to  live  on  "  respi- 
ratory materials "  absolutely  alone,  and  you  will  be  for- 
tunate if  the  issue  be  not  —  as  invariably  happens  to 
animals  so  experimented  upon  —  death  within  a  few 
weeks,  in  utmost  bodily  misery. 

Alcohol,  then,  has  no  title  whatever  to  be  regarded 
as  food,  in  reference  to  nutrition,  or  the  repairing  of 
tissue.  Its  claim  to  be  considered  food,  as  an  ordinari/ 
agent  for  maintaining  temperature  by  intra-combustion, 
is  founded  on  no  just  or  sufficient  grounds,  and  is  in 
fuct  untenable.  And  its  title  to  rank  as  vital  "force" 
rests  only  on  a  fallacy. 

May  it  aspire  to  a  humbler  position,  as  an  accessory 
to  food,  or  condiment — such  as  salt,  pepper,  or  mustard  ? 

Salt  is  a  natural  constituent  of  ordinary  food;  and 
when,  from  circumstances,  its  amount  is  defective,  both 
men  and  animals  are  led  by  a  natural  instinct  and 
craving  to  supply  the  defect  from  other  sources.     Be- 


72  alcohol:   its   place. 

sides,  it  is  present  in  all  the  fluids,  and  almost  all  the 
solids,  of  the  healthy  body.  Nothing  of  this  is  true  as 
regards  alcohol. 

Pepper  and  mustard  are  pure  stimulants ;  and,  mixed 
with  food,  may  be  medicinally  carminative.  Whether 
taken  in  large  or  small  doses,  occasional  or  habitual,  — 
and  no  doubt  they  are  often  used  most  unnecessarily, — 
they  are  not  found  circulating  in  the  blood,  specifically 
affecting  the  brain,  or  exhibiting  any  such  poisonqus 
results  on  the  general  system  as  we  have  seen  to  be 
characteristic  of  alcohol.  Taken  to  excess  in  large  dose, 
the  stomach  relieves  itself  by  vomiting.  Taken  in 
small  quantities,  yet  unduly,  the  stomach  loses  natural 
tone,  by  becoming  habitually  dependent  on  the  extrinsic 
stimulus. 

In  this  latter  respect  there  is  similarity  between  alco- 
hol and  these  ordinary  condiments.  Being  a  direct 
stimulus  to  the  stomach,  it  may,  as  such,  temporarily 
aid  digestion;  and  as  such  it  may  be  used  in  small 
quantity  to  help  the  stomach  in  an  emergency.  But 
used  even  thus,  it  is  liable  to  the  same  objection  as  is 
the  constant  and  indiscriminate  use  of  these  others  — 
atony  of  the  stomach,  to  a  greater  or  less  extent,  and 
disorder  of  health  following  thereon.  If  you  habitually 
give  an  organ  assistance,  it  will  come  to  trust  to  that 
assistance — do  half  its  proper  work,  and  get  lazy.  Nay, 
it  will  get  weak.  Give  a  limb  the  help  of  a  splint  or 
crutch,  day  by  day,  and  for  many  days,  and  the  muscles 
will  grow  small,  soft,  and  flabby.  Cramp  and  case  a 
healthy  human  trunk  in  steel  stays,  and  you  must  in^ 
evitably  prod  uce  debility,  probal  ly  with  distortion. 


ALCOHOL    AS     FOOD.  73 

Besides,  remember  the  all-important  fact,  that  alcohol 
in  its  action  never  can  be  limited  to  the  stomach  alone; 
but,  being  invariably  absorbed  into  the  blood,  must  affect 
the  general  system. 

Herein  lies  the  vast  difference  between  it  and  the 
common  condiments.  And  if  any  place  be  accorded  to 
it  in  this  category,  sensible  men  will  mark  it  thus : 
"Alcohol,  a  condiment,  in  small  occasional  doses ;  ordi- 
narily unsuitable,  generally  unnecessary,  and  always  un- 
manageable and  unsafe." 

"  What !  is  a  glass  of  brandy  not  essential  after  sal- 
mon ?"  No,  sir.  If  you  have  eaten  salmon  to  such  an 
extent  as  to  require  brandy,  it  is  a  sign  that  you  have 
eaten  too  much  salmon;  and  if,  in  consequence,  a  remedy 
is  necessary,  you  have  selected  the  wrong  one.  Dip  your 
hand  again  into  the  bag  of  the  materia  medica,  and  if 
an  emetic  should  turn  up,  you  will  find  it  infinitely  more 
appropriate. 

To  one  article,  often  used  as  a  condiment,  I  confess 
that  alcohol  has  to  my  mind  some  resemblance  —  horse- 
radish. Many  a  man  eats  this  with  his  beef,  and  thinks 
he  is  the  better  for  it ;  certainly  he  seems  to  suffer  not 
at  all.  But  ever  and  anon  there  flashes  out  a  sad  cala- 
mity of  some  hapless  eater  poisoned,  through  aconite 
having  been  taken  in  mistake.  And  so  there  is  many 
a  man  who  takes  his  dram  with  salmon  and  with  cheese, 
day  by  day,  scarcely  seeming  to  suffer  thereby;  whilst 
others,  by  like  practice,  commit  a  mistake,  and  come  to 
fatal  poisoning.  But  there  is  this  sad  difference  :  in  the 
one  case,  the  poisoning  is  rare  and  exceptional ;  in  the 


74  alcohol:    ITS    PLACE. 

other,  the  fatal  cases  are  counted  by  thousands  and  tens 
of  thousands.  ^ 

"  What !"  say  the  alcoholists,  "  will  you  stop  us  from 
shaving,  because  a  man  now  and  then  cuts  his  throat  ? " 
No.  But  if  it  so  happen  that  one  out  of  every  four  or 
five  men  who  imitate  your  example  is  led  ilierehy  to  cut 
his  throat  —  some  maimed  and  mutilated  for  life,  some 
suicides — then  surely  common  humanity  should  persuade 
you  to  throw  away  the  razor  in  disgust,  and  identify 
yourself  with  the  beard  movement. 

Let  us  take  one  other  view  of  the  "  Food  "  question, 
before  leaving  it. 

A  tree  is  known  by  its  fruits.  Food  is  estimated  by 
its  results.  A  man  or  animal,  subsisting  on  convenient 
food,  will  prosper  on  it,  more  or  less.  How  fares  it  witli 
the  man  that  lives  on  alcohol  ?  There  are  some  —  alas  ! 
far  too  many  —  who,  with  much  truth,  may  be  said  al- 
most to  do  so.  Like  Falstaff,  they  have  but  a  morsel 
of  bread  to  their  much  sack.  Nay,  they  pride  them- 
selves on  being  "  small  eaters ;"  honestly  adding,  how- 
ever, that  they  "  take  a  good  deal  of  drink ; "  and  then 
perhaps  setting  up  a  plea  for  this  latter  questionable 
virtue  being  in  their  case  somewhat  of  a  necessity. 
Some  such  there  are,  who  live  thus  by  choice ;  others 
are  driven  to  it,  in  a  sense,  by  reason  of  insufficient 
food  —  "their  poverty,  and  not  their  will,  consenting'' 
to  this  sad  substitute.  The  case  of  the  latter  is  pitiable, 
and  not  without  excuse;  but  in  all  the  result  is  the 
same. 

It  is  as  follows,  as  has  been  in  part  stated  already, 
when  considering  the  signs  of  general  poisoning  (p.  35). 


ALCOHOL   AS    FOOD.  75 

Be  lie  beer-drinker,  wine-drinker,  or  dram-drinker,  who 
lives  thus  snipe-like  by  suction,  the  evidence  of  the 
feeding  power  of  his  diet  stands  thus.  Besides  the 
diseases  of  the  various  organs,  already  spoken  of,  mani- 
festing themselves  by  their  ordinary  signs,  the  process 
of  general  nutrition  is  obviously  out  of  joint.  The  skin 
is  discolored  and  diseased,  and  hangs  loose  and  flabby 
on  the  parts  beneath.  These  are  soft  and  doughy;  and 
there  is  an  excess  of  water  in  the  cellular  tissue,  giving 
a  dropsical  appearance.  Where  there  should  be  mus- 
cular firmness  and  rotundity,  there  is  thinness  and  misery 
of  limb ;  where  fineness  and  sharpness  of  outline,  there 
is  heavy  and  misshapen  pulp.  The  eye  is  glassy  and 
unspeculative ;  the  tongue  is  foul,  and  not  so  glib  as  was 
its  wont;  the  breath  is  fetid,  and  noisome  eructations 
with  filthiness  of  spit  are  ever  and  anon  emerging.  The 
hands  are  hot  and  tremulous ;  the  limbs,  too,  shake,  and 
feebly  totter  as  they  go.  The  clothes  hang  loose  upon 
the  skeleton,  as  this  daily  becomes  more  and  more  appa- 
rent; the  cheekbones  stare,  the  cheeks  themselves  fall 
in ;  and  the  merest  child  may  tell  that  the  whole  man, 
mental  and  corporeal,  is  starving.  "Come  away!"  said 
a  late  Lord  of  Session,  to  a  lean,  tall,  sallow,  withered 
Writer  to  the  Signet,  who  entered  the  Parliament  House 
eating  a  dry  split  haddock,  or  speldron  —  "  Come  away, 

Mr. !     I  am  glad  to  see  you  looking  so  like  your 

meat."  This  was  a  mere  joke  on  the  part  of  the  learned 
lord.  But  in  the  case  of  the  man  we  speak  of,  -such  a 
phrase  would  be  full  of  sad  truth.  He  does  indeed  look 
like  his  "meat" — unsubstantial,  unstable,  unwholesome ; 
his  life  "  even  as  a  vapor  vanishing  away." 


76  alcohol:    ITS    PLACE. 

Or  if  he  be  young,  and  mainly  live  (?)  on  malt,  there 
may  be  an  apparent  nutrition  and  growth.  He  may 
grow  fat ',  but  the  fat  is  not  that  which  in  an  ox  a  flesher 
would  call  "prime."  It  is  soft,  thin,  and  ill-colored. 
Ill  placed  it  is  too ;  collecting  where  no  fat  should  be ; 
putting  the  outer  man  all  out  of  drawing,  and  squeezing 
some  of  the  internal  organs  most  inconveniently;  his 
voice  is  changed,  his  breath  is  short  and  wheezing,  and 
his  heart  is  laboring.  Rapidly  this  fat,  both  out  and 
in,  has  accumulated,  like  snow  by  the  wayside ;  and  as 
rapidly  it  may  thaw  and  drip  away,  leaving  as  a  residue 
the  most  gaunt  and  grisly  form  of  humanity. 

There  are  fat  and  lean  kine,  then,  produced  on  this 
pasturage;  but  they  are  all  "ill-favored."  Sometimes 
there  is,  as  it  were,  a  crossing  of  the  breed,  and  the  two 
conditions  are  somewhat  mixed  up — in  every  case,  how- 
ever, expressing  the  unnatural  and  diseased,  and  usually 
betokening  a  rapid  onset  of  premature  old  age,  as  has 
been  well  expressed  by  the  great  dramatist,  "  a  marvel- 
lous observer  of  men  and  manners."  "  Do  you  set  down 
your  name  in  the  scroll  of  youth  that  are  written  down 
old,  with  all  the  characters  of  age  ?  Have  you  not  a 
moist  eye,  a  yellow  cheek,  a  white  beard,  a  decreasing 
leg,  an  increasing  belly?  Is  not  your  voice  broken, 
your  wind  short,  your  chin  double,  your  wit  single,  and 
every  part  about  you  bloated  with  antiquity?  and  will 
you  yet  call  yourself  young  ?     Fie,  fie,  fie,  Sir  John." 

In  many  a  case  there  is  another  fatness  —  unseen,  but 
all  the  more  dangerous.  The  alcohol  preventing  the 
burning  off  of  the  fat  taken  as  food,  as  well  as  of  that 
which  circulates  in  the  blood,  as  part  of  the  waste  mate- 


ALCOHOL    AS    FOOD.  77 

rial  of  the  frame,  causes  accumulatiou  of  this  somewhere 
as  we  have  seen  (page  35),  and  experieiice  shows  that 
it  is  prone  not  only  to  be  put  down  on  tissue,  but  to  be 
put  down  in  and  to  take  the  place  of  tissue.  The  heart, 
for  example,  is  liable  not  only  to  be  loaded  with  fat,  but 
to  be  in  part  converted  into  fat ;  and  the  whole  arterial 
tissue  is  exposed  to  the  same  degeneracy.  The  liver, 
and  kidneys,  too,  are  not  exempt.  And  so  the  man  be- 
comes constitutionally  undermined,  ere  ever  he  be  aware ; 
not  only  rendered  incurably  diseased,  but  liable  to  sudden 
death  from  very  slight  cause.  The  insurance  offices 
know  this  well ;  and  either  reject  the  habitual  soaker, 
summarily,  or  exact  such  an  additional  premium  as  vir- 
tually amounts  to  refusal  of  the  policy. 

Moreover,  the  fatty  degeneracy  of  the  structure  may 
be  so  extensive,  and  the  soaking  of  the  entire  frame  in 
unchanged  alcohol  so  thorough,  as  to  render  the  man 
dangerously  prone  to  a  most  lamentable  consummation, 
from  a  common  outward  cause  —  his  alcohol  proving  an 
"aptitude  for  combustion"  in  a  way  he  little  dreamt  of. 
Falling  asleep  near  a  fire  or  candle,  a  spark  lights  upon 
him ;  and  having  become  as  it  were  a  compound  of  an 
oil  or  spirit  lamp — with  a  dash  of  phosphorus  to  boot 
(page  19) — he  burns  with  a  strange  burning  :  producing 
little  flame  or  heat,  but  steadily  consuming  away,  in 
horrid  stench,  leaving  but  a  small  residue  of  dark,  offen- 
sive, unctuous  dross  to  mark  the  place  where  he  lay.* 

*  Examples  of  this  fearful  ending  are  by  no  means  very  rare.  The 
term  of  "  spontaneous  combustion  "  is  a  misnomer,  only  so  far  as  im- 
plying that  the  incremation  is  of  spontaneous  origin.    Authentic 


78  alcohol:    ITS    PLACE. 

Sometimes  these  serious  evils  are  long  protracted, 
even  in  hard  and  habitual  drinkers,  who  for  a  time  may 
actually  seem  of  specially  robust  health.  But  all  is  de- 
ceitful. Take  the  stout,  burly,  red-faced,  brewers'  dray- 
man, for  example — who  is  daily  consuming  his  horns  of 
ale  or  porter,  with  his  modicum  of  spirits  to  make  them 
"light"-:— and  let  any  disease  or  accident  befall  him. 
This  will  at  once  shiver  the  outward  crust  of  health  and 
strength  to  atoms.  The  man  can  neither  bear  disease, 
nor  the  remedies  for  disease ;  the  surgeon  and  physician 
stand  all  but  helpless  at  the  bed  of  such  a  patient }  and 
a  scratch  or  common  ail,  by  which  a  temperate  or  absti- 
nent man  would  not  be  held  for  a  day,  may  fatally  sweep 
away  this  other  within  a  few  days,  or  even  hours.  What 
would  prove  but  a  simple  healthy  inflammation  in  the 
temperate,  degenerates  in  the  intemperate  into  an  un- 
healthy kind,  prone  to  pass  into  gangrene.  Four  cases 
of  mortification  of  the  lungs  are  narrated  by  Dr.  Stokes 
— and  all  in  drunkards. 

Such  are  some  of  the  doings  of  alcohol  in  the  way  of 
nourishing.  Looking  to  the  results,  we  may  well  say. 
If  this  be  food,  it  is  manifestly  of  a  very  perverse  kind — 
most  unwholesome.  And  those  who  vend  it  might,  not 
unreasonably,  be  dealt  with  by  the  civic  and  legal  autho- 
rities, as  nefariously  trading  in  "diseased  meat" — fined 
and  interdicted,  with  confiscation  of  all  the  noxious  stuff 
found  on  the  premises. 

cases  will  be  found  detailed  by  Dr.  Charles  Wilson,  in  his  *•' Pathology 
of  Drunkenness,  page  92,  et  aeq. 


ALCOHOLASALUXURY.  79 

ALCOHOL     AS     A     LUXURY. 

In  arguing  against  the  habitual  use  of  strong  drinks, 
I  have  often  been  met  with  an  objection  to  this  effect: 
''  I  do  not  admit  that  alcohol  has  its  proper  place  in  the 
materia  medica,  as  you  allege  —  nor  yet  do  I  seek  to 
place  it  among  the  articles  of  food;  but  I  regard  it  as 
a  luxury^  and  use  it  as  such." 

Let  us  consider  it  in  this  view. 

What  is  a  luxury  ?  Sundry  meanings  are  attached  to 
the  word  in  the  various  lexicons.  The  following,  if  not 
the  most  appropriate,  are  certainly  the  most  favorable  to 
the  promoters  of  such  a  plea :  "  That  which  gratifies  a 
nice  and  fastidious  appetite;  a  dainty;  any  delicious 
food  or  drink;  or  anything  delightful  to  the  senses." 
The  literal  meaning  of  the  word,  when  used  in  contra- 
distinction to  food,  will  come  out  by  regard  to  its  deri- 
vation—  luOy  luxoj  hixus,  luxuria.  Alcohol,  then,  we 
will  have  to  consider  as  separate  from  food,  and  taken  in 
addition  to  it — as  a  "  dainty,"  or  something  "  delightful 
to  the  senses." 

Whence  is  it  taken  ?  From  what  has  gone  before, 
we  need  have  no  difficulty  in  answering.  From  the  ma- 
teria medica.  It  is  something  transferred  from  the 
category  of  drugs  into  that  of  food,  because  in  its 
effects  it  is  pleasant  or  "  delightful  to  the  senses."  "  In 
its  effects,"  we  say ;  for,  as  regards  itself,  "  the  dainti- 
ness," and  '^  deliciousness,"  and  "gratifjdng  of  appetite," 
are  generally  acquired. 

Now  it  so  happens  that  the  ingenuity  of  man  has 
transferred  other  things  in  like  manner;  and  these  pro- 


80  alcohol:   its  place. 

mise  to  be  of  use  in  helping  us  to  test  the  rightfulness 
of  transfer  in  the  present  instance.  The  substances  to 
which  I  allude  are  tobacco  and  opium,  belonging  to  the 
same  class  of  medicines  with  alcohol  —  namely,  the 
narcotics. 

Tobacco  is  one  of  the  most  powerful  of  poisons ;  and 
is  not  without  its  value — like  many  others  of  the  same 
class — as  an  article  of  medicine  too.  Give  it,  even  in 
small  dose,  to  a  child,  or  to  one  of  any  age  unaccustomed 
to  its  use,  and  its  taste  will  be  found  unpleasant,  while 
the  eflfects  will  be  nauseous  and  disgusting.  But  habit 
brings  a  change  in  these  respects.  After  a  time  of 
longer  or  shorter  probation,  and  after  perhaps  no  little 
sickness  and  distress  in  the  course  of  it,  the  recipient 
of  the  tobacco  —  whether  it  be  in  fume,  or  powder,  or 
solid  mass  —  comes  to  find  a  strange  pleasure  and  fasci- 
nation in  its  use.  And  many  a  man,  and  woman  too  — 
nay,  even  many  a  stripling — would  almost  as  soon  want 
their  daily  meal,  as  their  accustomed  cigar  or  pipe. 
They  will  not  call  it  "food:"  it  is  something  "after 
meat;"  and  they  call  it  "luxury."  Sometimes,  too, 
they  will  tell  you  that  when  food  cannot  be  got,  it  forms 
no  indifierent  substitute,  tending  to  keep  them  "  warm 
and  comfortable." 

Now,  what  are  the  consequences  of  this  acquired 
habit  ?     Plainly  three,  at  least,  may  be  enumerated : 

I.  Harm,  more  or  less,  is  done  to  the  individual.  The 
theory  of  the  law  of  tolerance,  already  alluded  to,  shows 
that;  and  the  proof  may  readily  be  completed  by  ad- 
ducing the  result  of  experiehce.  In  confirmed  and  ex- 
cessive smokers,  for  instance,  the  tongue  soon  shows  signs 


ALCOHOL    AS    A    LUXURY.  81 

of  disorder  in  tlie  general  lining  of  the  alimentary  canal; 
the  drain  on  the  saliva — run  to  waste  —  causes  thirst; 
and  the  stomach  gives  plain  token  of  an  impaired  diges- 
tion. The  hand  shakes ;  there  is  a  peculiar  expression 
of  the  eye;  the  heart  palpitates;  and  the  entire  ner- 
vous system  is  evidently  impaired  in  tone.  This  is  bad 
enough ;  but  worse  may  follow.  Local  diseases,  of  the 
most  serious  kind,  may  attack  the  mouth;  and  one  or 
both  limbs  may  become  more  or  less  completely  para- 
lysed.* 

No  absolutely  healthy  man  daily  consumes  tobacco,  in 
any  form,  or  in  any  considerable  quantity.  If  he  seem 
to  bear  it  with  impunity,  it  is  simply  because,  by  pre- 
vious use  of  the  drug,  he  has  induced  a  perverted  or 
morbid  state  of  system,  to  which  further  continuance 
of  the  drug's  use  brings  at  least  a  temporary  relief 
(page  59). 

II.  The  man  becomes  a  slave.  For  a  time  he  has 
gone  on  swimmingly  with  his  "weed."  But,  by-and- 
by,  he  thinks  to  leave  it  off,  on  account  of  its  expense, 
perhaps,  or  its  inconvenience,  or  a  sense  of  mischief 
done.  But  he  finds  it  easier  to  acquire  than  to  aban- 
don—  to  take  up  than  to  lay  down.     There  are  two  at 

*•  There  has  been  much  controversy  of  late  as  to  the  effects  of 
tobacco  on  the  human  body ;  and,  no  doubt,  extreme  statements  have 
been  made  on  both  sides.  In  the  present  brief  sketch,  I  state  only 
what  I  have  repeatedly  seen,  and  am  sure  of. 

Dr.  Marshall  ll;ill — a  very  high  authority  on  such  a  subject — has 
recorded  his  experience  and  opinion  as  follows :  "  It  is  plain  that 
tobacco  acts  on  the  cerebrum,  the  medulla  oblongata,  and  the  heart  : 
its  effects  are  stupidity,  defective  breathing,  defective  action  of  the 
heart — forms  of  debility  and  impaired  energy." 

6 


82  alcohol:   its   place. 

the  bargain-making  in  either  case  ^  but  at  the  beginning 
and  the  end  their  respective  positions  are  reversed. 
"  What  has  become  of  your  old  servant  Robert  ?  You 
have  not  surely  parted  with  him  ?  '^  said  a  friend  to  an 
aged  gentleman,  at  the  door  of  one  of  the  metropolitan 
clubs.  "  Yes,  indeed  I  have."  "  Why  ?  Has  he  not 
been  with  you  for  fifteen  years  T'  "  Yes.  But  it  was 
full  time  we  should  part;  and  I  will  tell  you  why.  In 
the  first  five  years,  he  was  an  admirable  servant;  for  the 
next  five,  he  was  a  very  pleasant  companion ;  but  during 
the  last  five,  he  has  been  a  most  insufferable  tyrant." 
So  is  it  with  the  tobacco.  At  first  it  is  taken  up  or  put 
down  at  will,  without  grudge  or  grumble;  no  menial 
could  be  more  submissive.  Next,  it  comes  to  be  quite 
on  a  par  with  you ;  and  you  cannot  well  stir  without 
taking  it  at  least  into  consultation.  But,  afterwards,  you 
are  altogether  its  slave.  Provided  you  do  not  quarrel 
with  its  exactions,  and  are  content  to  hug  your  chains, 
all  may  go  smoothly  enough ;  the  weight  of  the  burden 
is  very  imperceptibly  felt.  But  if  a  contention  should 
arise,  and  you  seek  to  emancipate  yourself  at  a  stroke, 
then  the  true  extent  of  the  mischief  flashes  upon  you, 
to  your  sore  confusion — one  of  two  alternatives  awaiting 
your  decision  :  either  to  fall  back  into  helpless  bondage ; 
or  to  begin  a  fight  for  freedom,  of  greatest  pain,  and 
even  of  doubtful  issue. 

III.  The  evil,  through  your  influence  and  example, 
is  extended  to  others.  Not  only  is  harm  done  to  your- 
self, but,  by  giving  a  character  and  commonness  to  the 
practice,  you  are  the  means  of  entrapping  the  unwary, 
and  thereby  extending  the  evil.     You  see  little  ragged 


ALCOHOL    AS    A    LUXURY.  83 

urchins  on  the  street  clubbing  their  few  pence  to  pur- 
chase tobacco  and  a  pipe ;  then  they  congregate  in  some 
convenient  stair,  and,  striking  a  light,  take  whiff  and 
whiff  about,  till  either  sick  or  satisfied.  They  don't  like 
the  smell  of  the  weed,  far  less  its  taste ;  and  how  comes 
it  that  they  give  themselves  this  trouble  ?  Simply  be- 
cause they  see  their  fathers  and  big  brothers  do  the 
same,  and  they  think  it  manly.  Or  see  that  breeched 
boy,  with  hat  and  cane,  fresh  from  his  mother's  apron- 
string —  lounging  on  the  portico,  or  strolling  on  the 
lawn,  or  swaggering  even  on  the  street,  striving  hard  to 
seem  at  ease  behind  that  enormous  cigar — almost  as  big 
as  himself — which  seems  rather  to  be  smoking  him  than 
he  it.  Do  you  think  that  he  would  ever  have  ventured 
on  such  a  bold  experiment,  unless  he  had  seen  men,  gen- 
tlemen, sensible-looking  gentlemen,  such  as  you,  similarly 
employed  ? 

You  say:  "All  very  true;  but  it  is  a  luxury;  and  I 
like  it."  In  reply,  let  me  simply  ask,  Is  it  either  wise 
or  right  to  indulge  in  a  luxury — something  not  essential 
—  that  is  hurtful,  enslaving,  and  infectious  ? 

Opium  is  an  intense  poison,  when  given  either  unne- 
cessarily, or  in  inordinate  dose ;  yet  when  duly  adminis- 
tered, as  necessity  requires,  it  is  one  of  the  most  precious 
of  drugs.  The  medical  man  would  be  shorn  of  half  his 
strength  were  he  debarred  from  opium  —  in  small  doses 
to  stimulate,  in  large  to  calm  and  soothe.  "  Thank  God 
for  opium!"  fervently  ejaculated  one  of  our  most  expe- 
rienced and  skilful  physicians. 

But  men  in  health  take  it  as  a  luxury.  And  the  same 
unforttinate  sequence  occurs  as  in  the  case  ot  tobacco : 


84  alcohol:    ITS    PLACE. 

first,  it  is  a  servant ;  then  an  inseparable  companion ;  at 
last  a  tyrant.  It  has  a  special  action  on  the  brain ;  at 
first  stimulant,  afterwards  sedative.  At  the  beginning 
of  the  dose  the  cerebral  functions  are  all  excited,  and 
usually  in  a  highly  pleasurable  way;  but  as  the  effect 
accumulates,  the  mental  products  become  of  a  morbid  or 
perverted  kind;  and  at  length  the  nervous  function,  as 
regards  its  influence  on  intellect,  special  sense,  and  mus- 
cular power,  is  lulled  *nto  apathy  and  sleep. 

"  When  a  Chinese  is  about  to  partake  of  the  indul- 
gence," says  Mr.  D.  Matheson,  "  he  retires  to  a  private 
apartment,  and,  reclining  on  his  couch,  takes  his  pipe, 
made  for  the  purpose,  and  placing  on  the  bowl  of  it  a 
little  opium,  about  the  size  of  a  pea,  he  sets  it  on  fire  at 
a  small  lamp,  and  then  throwing  himself  back  on  the 
couch,  inhales  the  smoke  at  short  intervals  in  a  listless 
mood,  till  he  has  attained  the  desired  stimulus,  or  deli- 
rium, as  the  case  may  be.  If  he  is  a  confirmed  victim, 
he  usually  falls  into  a  profound  but  restless  sleep  till  the 
effects  of  the  indulgence  have  passed  off.  In  the  latter 
case,  the  craving  soon  returns,  and  with  it  all  the  lan- 
gour  and  misery  and  pain  till  the  next  period  of  relief," 
All  this  is  done  at  first  by  the  "  little  pea."  But  "  that 
small  quantity  soon  loses  its  effect,"  says  Dr.  Little, 
"  and,  to  produce  the  same  amount  of  excitement,  the 
dose  must  be  doubled,  and  that  again  increased,  till  I 
have  known  the  original  quantity  multiplied  one  hundred 
fold."  Some  bear  up  under  this,  without  much  outward 
sign  of  physical  evil,  as  hard  drinkers  in  this  country 
may  do ;  but  in  general  the  confirmed  "  victim  "  may  not 
conceal  his  chain  and  shackles.     His  body  grows  weak 


ALCOHOL    AS    A    LUXURY.  85 

and  emaciated,  his  complexion  sallow,  his  eye  sunk  and 
listless,  his  features  haggard ;  his  body  stoops,  and  ex- 
presses strongly,  in  every  movement,  a  premature  old 
age ;  the  mind  is  weak  and  fitful ;  and  the  moral  tone  is 
both  lowered  and  led  astray.  This  is  the  period  of  com- 
plete abject  enslavement;  and  th«  man  that,  starting 
from  his  danger,  would  struggle  to  be  free,  must  face  an 
amount  of  efibrt,  as  regards  both  body  and  mind,  that  is 
all  but  overwhelming.  One  in  a  thousand  may  escape, 
as  brands  plucked  from  the  burning. 

AVhat  sane  and  sober  man  will  tamper  with  a  drug 
like  this,  encountering  such  a  risk  for  such  a  boon  ?  Yet 
it  is  done  by  thousands  in  other  climes ;  and  a  like  thing 
is  clone  hy  thousands  more  among  ourselves  —  all  under 
the  plea  of  luxury! 

Like  its  brother  narcotics,  tobacco  and  opium,  alcohol 
has  its  seductive  progress,  when  used  as  a  something 
additional  to  man's  ordinary  wants,  a  "dainty,"  and 
"delightful  to  the  senses."  Exhilarating  at  the  first, 
and  pleasurable  to  the  intellectual  as  well  as  to  the 
animal  sense,  nevertheless  it  tends  to  pervert,  and  dete- 
riorate, and  destroy  what  man  would  most  wish  to  cherish 
and  retain.  After  a  time,  too,  the  amount  taken  must 
be  increased  to  produce  even  the  first  and  best  efiect ; 
and  then  the  subsequent  sinister  tendency  becomes  more 
and  more  intensified.  A  state  of  mind  and  body  is  con- 
sequently induced  which  craves  not  only  continuance 
but  still  further  increase  of  the  stimulant.  And  after 
every  exhilaration  there  comes  depression ;  the  reaction 
constant,  and    often    great.     Who   so   melancholy  and 


86  alcohol:  its  place. 

moping,  in  his  intervals — who  so  sad  in  his  sobriety,  as 
the  man  who  depends  for  mirth  and  gladness  on  this 
deceitful  help !  Forced  hilarity  turns  out  a  sorry  afiair  in 
the  long  run.  "  Go  and  see  G-rimaldi,"  said  Abernethy 
to  a  hopeless  hypochondriac.  "Alas,"  said  the  poor  pa- 
tient, "  I  am  the  man  ! " 

What  brings  relief?  Again  be  it  noted,  in  letters  of 
fire — for  here  is  the  great  danger  —  the  drug  itself,  and 
nothing  else,  at  the  time.  The  man  is  bitten,  and  he 
knows  it  is  for  his  life ;  but  he  is  fascinated,  and  must 
turn  to  the  biter  again.  This  is  the  terrible  peculiarity 
of  alcohol  and  opium.  Tjaeir  pleasure  is  followed  by 
pain ;  and  to  relieve  that  pain,  a  morbid  instinct,  all  but 
irresistible,  leads  them  to  repeat  its  cause.  Relief  is 
felt  —  transitory  and  delusive  —  followed  by  reaction  and 
relapse.  And  so  in  sad  sequence  the  alternation  goes  — 
with  no  natural  check  to  its  progress. 

The  individual  is  hurt,  grievously  hurt.  When  alarmed 
and  eager  to  escape,  he  finds  himself  in  chains  as  a  bond 
slave.  And,  through  his  example,  society  at  large  is 
hurt  likewise;  for  his  fellows,  imitating  him  —  and  they 
may  be  many — become  similarly  ensnared. 

Now  we  are  far  from  asserting  that  this  is  the  inva- 
riable result  of  such  luxurious  indulgence.  We  know 
well  that  there  are  many  most  estimable,  upright,  and 
Christian  men,  who  have  their  alcoholic  luxury  day  by 
day,  and  who  maintain  it  in  its  original  place  of  subjec- 
tion and  control.  Their  dose  is  the  same  now  as  it  was 
twenty,  thirty,  or  fifty  years  ago  ]  they  seem  none  the 
worse,  either  in  body  or  mind )  and  no  one,  perhaps,  ever 
saw  aught  in  them,  through  such  indulgence,  which 


ALCOHOL   AS   A    LUXURY.  87 

could  breathe  a  stain  on  either  manhood  or  Christianity  * 
But  what  we  assert  is,  that  the  tendency  is  as  has  been 
stated  —  damaging  and  downwards,  not, only  to  the  man 
but  to  the  many.  And  the  momentous  question  arises — 
Is  this  a  luxury  that  ought  to  be  indulged  in  ? 

Might  it  not  be  well  to  follow  the  example  of  one  of 
the  wisest,  best,  and  manliest  of  men  —  "All  things  are 
lawful  unto  me,  but  all  things  are  not  expedient;  all 
things  are  lawful  for  me,  but  I  will  not  he  brought  under 
the  power  of  any  "  ?  f 

Some  may  take  a  preliminary  and  general  view;  satis- 
fying themselves  that  all  alcoholics  are  but  a  luxury  at 
the  best,  and  that  which  is  not  needful  for  any  just  want, 
but  only  a  thing  "  delightful  to  the  senses" — a  ^'dainty," 
or  mayhap  a  means  of  "  gratifying  a  nice  and  fastidious 

*  Even  they,  however>  are  not  absolutely  scathless.  The  en- 
slaving result  has  not  been  wholly  escaped  from.  In  advanced  years 
they  -will  find  it  difficult  to  abandon  the  habit.  And  even  when  the 
mind  is  ready  and  willing  to  make  the  effort,  the  body  may  prove 
stubborn  —  the  "flesh"  maybe  "weak."  The  long-continued  habit 
may  not  be  at  once  given  up,  without  the  certainty  of  corporeal  dis- 
tress, and  some  risk  of  even  injury  thereby. 

-|-  There  is  sometimes  an  apparent  heartlessness  in  the  arguments 
and  illustrations  of  the  alcoholists  on  this  question.  "  The  thing  is 
dangerous  in  the  hands  of  boys  and  fools ;  but  for  grown  and  sensible 
men  it  is  safe.  They  have  it  in  command ;  and  why  deny  them  the 
'luxury?'"  The  razor  is  kept  from  "Tommy"  in  his  Tommyhood; 
but  when  he  is  grown  a  man,  the  "razor  is  then  placed  in  his  hands, 
with  full  reliance  that  he  will  not  cut  himself — often."  Indeed! 
He  may  cut  his  chin  every  day,  and  lose  blood  too.  Some  day,  when 
he  least  expects  it,  he  may  cut  his  throat.  There  may  be  a  little 
wit,  but  there  is  less  wisdom,  and  certainly  no  generosity,  in  that — 
"often." 


88  alcohol:    ITS    PLACE. 

appetite  " — is  not  lawful  to  them,  as  seeking  to  keep  the 
body  under  and  bring  it  into  subjection.  With  them 
we  quarrel  not ;  but  yet  are  aware  that  such  self-denial 
is  too  transcendental  for  the  mass  of  humanity.  And  to 
the  latter  we  would  venture  to  put  the  matter  in  another 
form.  Granting  the  lawfulness  of  your  indulgence  in 
luxuries  which  are  suitable  and  safe,  how  stand  you  to 
this,  which  is  neither  the  one  nor  the  other  ?  It  is  not 
suitable ;  for  we  have  shown  that  there  is  no  exigency 
fitting  for  it  in  the  healthy  economy.  And  it  is  not 
safe ;  for  we  have  proved  that  it  must  hurt  the  healthy 
man  more  or  less ',  and  if  at  any  time  he  let  go  the  rope 
with  which  he  holds  it  in  restraint,  the  most  disastrous 
consequences  may  ensue.  That  rope  is  slippery — that 
hand  is  feeble — ^that  risk  is  great.  Yourself  may  become 
enslaved  and  lost ;  you  may  be  the  means  of  enslaving 
and  losing  others.  Whereas,  by  abstaining  from  the 
luxury,  you  sustain  no  harm  ^  all  you  lose  is  a  sensual 
gratification,  of  at  least  a  doubtful  kind;  you  gain  a 
vantage-ground  of  great  safety  for  yourself,  against  both 
physical  and  moral  disaster ;  and,  by  your  influence  and 
example,  you  may  be  the  means  of  conferring  like  benefit 
on  many  around  you. 

The  man  that  uses  alcohol  as  an  article  of  food,  ho- 
nestly believing  it  to  be  such,  has  some  excuse.  But 
as  for  him  who  uses  it  as  a  luxury,  avowedly,  with  the 
knowledge  that  he  must  have  of  the  risk  thereby  to 
himself  and  others,  I  do  not  say  that  he  is  without  ex- 
cuse ;  but  this  I  say,  that  his  excuse  is  one  which  it 
would  cost  both  him  and  me  some  trouble  to  find. 


ALCOHOL    AS    A    LUXURY.  89 

In  another  way  I  have  heard  the  objection  put.  "  Be- 
neficent Providence  has  filled  the  earth  with  food  con- 
venient for  man's  natural  wants ;  and  has  clothed  it  too 
with  jioicerSj  to  regale  and  delight  his  senses.  May  I 
not  look  on  wine  in  this  light,  and  use  it  as  I  would  a 
flower — at  least  occasionally?" 

The  earth  is  fair  with  flowers  —  their  fragrance  is 
sweet,  and  their  hues  are  beautiful.  But  even  they  are 
often  the  better  of  man's  hand  to  restrain  and  guide ; 
and  weeding  may  be  done  wisely,  too,  especially  with 
regard  to  domestic  interests. 

There  is  a  place  for  everything.  Shut  up  the  most 
fragrant  flowers  in  a  bed-room,  and  let  the  sleeper  tell 
what  he  thinks  of  their  perfume  next  morning.  Lite- 
rally he  is  sick  of  it;  and  well  he  may,  for,  through  it, 
he  is  sick  to  all  things  else  beside.  There  is  belladonna 
—  a  graceful  plant,  with  its  dark,  luscious  berries,  most 
fair  to  look  upon.  But  will  you  place  it  by  the  nursery 
window,  or  along  the  daily  walk  of  your  prattling  child- 
ren, who  may  be  tempted  to  put  forth  their  tiny  hands, 
and  pluck  the  deadly  poison  ?  Nay.  You  will  leave  it 
where  placed  by  nature — in  the  neighborhood  of  ruins, 
in  waste  places  and  solitudes.  And  there  is  aconite — 
beautiful  in  its  spike  of  deep-blue  helmeted  flowers? 
Will  you  think  it  safe  to  put  it  into  your  garden,  may- 
hap near  a  bed  of  the  ^culent  horse-radish,  for  whose 
root  it  has  so  often  been  fatally  mistaken  ?  Better  be 
content  with  some  other  ornament,  and  leave  the  monks- 
hood to  its  indigenous  mountain  sides  and  wooded  hills. 

Flowers  are  luxuries,  of  the  gentlest  as  well  as  of  the 
gayest  sort.     Many  —  nay,  most  —  are  in  all  respects 


90  alcohol:    ITS    PLACE. 

harmless,  when  in  their  proper  place.  Keep  them 
there.  And  let  those  that  you  have  nearest  you,  and 
in  daily  companionship,  be  both  simple  and  safe — not 
poisonous,  or  even  in  any  way  hurtful,  to  yourselves  or 
others. 

And  so  with  alcohol.  If  you  will  have  a  luxury,  take 
not  that.  Be  content  with  some  other,  less  formidable 
to  you  and  yours. 

Again ;  what  is  fairer  than  the  poppy,  spread  broad- 
cast in  the  field  ?  As  nature  plants  and  rears  it,  it  is  a 
fit  luxury  to  the  eye.  But  let  man,  in  his  cunning 
device,  torture  the  plant  till  it  yield  its  juice ;  and  that 
luxury — not  for  the  eye,  but  for  a  grosser  sense — be- 
comes a  deadly  poison.  So  with  the  grape.  What  fairer 
than  the  vine  —  its  climbing  stem,  its  shady  leaves,  its 
gorgeous  clusters  ?  "  The  fig-tree  putteth  forth  her  green 
figs,  and  the  vines  with  the  tender  grape  give  a  good 
smell."  The  ripened  fruit  is  a  "  dainty,"  both  sweet  and 
savory;  and  the  simple  wine  of  the  olden  time,  though 
not  wholly  without  its  alcoholic  and  intoxicating  ingre- 
dient, was  not  unfitted  to  gladden  the  heart  of  man,  on 
occasions  of  festive  mirth.  But  as  man's  "invention" 
extorted  opium  from  the  poppy,  so  it  brought  "spirit" 
from  the  grape.  Out  of  the  simple  luxuries  that  God 
gave  him,  wilful  man  has  manufactured  ■  poisons.  Sam- 
son's riddle  is  reversed  —  out»of  meat  comes  forth  the 
eater;  out  of  siceetness  comes  forth  the  strong. 

The  occasional  use  of  both  alcohol  and  opium  we 
readily  admit  to  be  most  beneficial,  under  the  exaction 
of  disease,  and  the  management  of  a  physician ;  but  to 
employ  either  as  articles  of  food,  or  as  frequent  luxuries, 


ALCOHOL    AS    A    LUXURY.  91 

is  to  pervert  the  nature  of  things,  and  wantonly  to  incur 
the  risk  of  the  greatest  evils. 

But  the  grape  reminds  me  of  still  another  variety  in 
the  form  of  objection :  *'  Grapes,  figs,  apples,  oranges, 
raisins,  dates,  are  luxuries ;  as  such,  they  are  taken  after 
dinner  —  something  separate  from  and  additional  to  the 
'■  food  :  ^  may  we  not  class  wine  among  these  ?  May  we 
not  as  well  sip  wine,  as  chew  a  raisin  or  eat  a  grape  ?  " 
To  this  we  answer : 

I.  Such  fruits  are  food — good,  wholesome  food;  and, 
when  taken,  should  be  used  as  part  of  the  meal,  not 
something  additional  to  it.  So  there  the  analogy  with 
alcoholics  does  not  hold.  The&e  are  not  food,  and  are 
taken  in  addition  to  it. 

II.  The  fruity,  weak,  yet  luscious  wine  of  the  primi- 
tive age  was  nutritious,  and  might  rank  as  food )  while 
its  small  (and  not  invariable)  alcoholic  ingredient  did 
not  debar  it  from  being  used  as  a  safe  occasional  luxury. 
But  it  is  altogether  difi"erent  with  the  brandied  wines 
and  other  strong  drinks  of  the  present  day  —  daily, 
habitually,  and  freely  consumed.  They  are  not  food, 
in  any  true  sense,  as  we  have  seen ;  and  their  use  as 
luxuries  is  pernicious. 

III.  I  may  eat  a  few  bitter  almonds  without  much 
harm,  after  dinner,  though  each  contains  an  appreciable 
amount  of  prussic  acid.  But  should  it  so  happen  that, . 
some  years  hence,  bitter  almonds  were  found  to  contain 
a  much  larger  quantity  of  that  deadly  poison,  while,  not- 
withstanding, men  had  got  into  the  habit  of  consuming 
them  much  more  frequently  and  in  larger  quantity  than 
before — would  I,  under  these  altered  circumstances,  con- 


92  alcohol:    ITS    PLACE. 

sider  it  prudent  for  myself,  or  safe  for  others,  to  continue 
the  indulgence  in  such  a  luxury  ? 

This  illustration  seems  to  me  to  have  an  important 
bearing  on  the  example  of  our  Lord,  so  often  quoted 
and  misquoted  in  favor  of  the  ordinary  use  of  modern 
wine.  The  ordinary  wine  of  those  days  was  undeniably 
weak  and  fruity  —  little  else  than  the  expressed  juice 
of  the  grape,  largely  diluting  a  small  amount  of  alcohol 
produced  by  fermentation  in  the  bottle,  when  opportu- 
nity was  given  to  such  change ;  and,  besides,  most  men 
did  not  drink  it  daily,  but  only  now  and  then.  Such 
wines  as  port  and  sherry  were  unknown ;  alcohol,  as  a 
separate  "spirit,"  had  not  begun  to  exist;  and  drunken- 
ness, as  contrasted  with  many  other  crimes,  was  compa- 
ratively rare.  Christ  partook  of  the  primitive  wine; 
He  sanctioned,  by  His  presence,  at  least  one  vinous 
feast,  and  miraculously  supplied  continuance  of  the 
luxury.  What  He  did  then,  and  what  He  did  always, 
was  right  —  perfectly  right,  we  know.  But  if  we  ven- 
ture reverentially  to  ask  what,  in  this  respect.  He  would 
have  done,  if  His  time  of  abode  upon  this  earth  had 
been  in  these  latter  days,  may  we  not  conclude,  that  He 
who  knew  what  was  in  man,  whose  heart  was  ever  full 
of  love  to  man,  and  who  went  about  continually  doing 
good,  would  not  have  countenanced,  but  rebuked  the 
drinking  customs  of  the  people,  which,  luxurious  at  the 
best,  and  in  most  cases  truly  vicious,  obviously  stand 
forth  as  the  prolific  cause  of  sin,  misery,  and  disease,  so 
rank  and  rife  in  the  land  ?  * 

*  There  is  nothing  derogatory  here  to  the  omniscience  of  the  Son 
of  God.     It  is  not  doubted  that  He  has  foreseen  all  things  from  the 


ALCOHOL   AS   A   LUXURY.  93 

In  the  Scriptures  we  know  that  there  "  are  some  things 
hard  to  be  understood,  which  they  that  are  unlearned 
and  unstable  wrest  unto  their  own  destruction."  Let  all 
beware  of  being  "  led  away  with  the  error  of  the  wicked" 
*^  falling  from"  their  "  own  steadfastness."  And  if  error 
may  not  be  wholly  escaped  from,  let  it  at  least  be  ap- 
proached upon  the  safer  side. 

beginning,  and  that  the  principles  of  His  personal  conduct  in  the 
world  rule  all  time;  but  obviously  the  details  of  that  conduct  neces- 
sarily varied  according  to  the  circumstances  of  the  period  and  place 
in  which  He  became  manifest  in  the  flesh.  A  steady  advance,  in- 
deed, has  ever  taken  place  in  the  application  of  those  principles  to 
the  practice  of  virtue  —  as  wUl  be  evident  to  all  who  intelligently 
compare  the  treatment  of  the  perceptive  part  of  the  Old  Testament 
with  the  treatment  of  the  like  department  in  the  New. 


ALCOHOL:  ITS  POWER 


For  the  right  use  of  any  agent,  a  knowledge  of  its 
power  is  quite  essential,  in  order  that  its  working  may 
be  duly  regulated  according  to  the  effect  which  we  desire 
to  produce. 

Let  us  consider  the  power  of  alcohol  somewhat  in 
detail,  although  this  may  involve  some  repetition  of 
former  statements. 

I.  The  power  of  alcohol  as  a  poison. — This  is  great,  as 
we  have  seen.  In  a  large  dose  it  may  prove  instantly 
fatal,  as  if  by  shock ;  or  the  victim  may  linger  a  while, 
dying  by  choking  and  stupor.  With  a  less  dose  one  may 
be  in  great  danger,  yet  recover;  carrying  for  many  a  day 
the  traces  of  his  injury.  In  a  less  dose  still,  alcohol 
produces  what  is  commonly  called  "  intoxication  ;"  and 
if  this  be  frequently  repeated,  mind  and  body  both  suffer 
sad  change  —  the  poison  acting  chiefly  on  the  brain  and 
nervous  system.  From  this  cause,  life  may  at  any  time 
be  imperilled  by  the  invasion  of  active  disease  —  organic 
or  functional :  inflammation  of  the  brain  or  its  mem- 
branes, apoplexy,  congestion,  delirium  tremensj  insanity, 
epilepsy.     Or,  by  still  smaller  doses,  a  cumulative  action 

(94) 


ALCOHOL    AS    A    POISON.  95 

may  be  produced^  ultimately  developing  itself  in  entire 
prostration  of  the  nervous  system — alcoholismus  chronicus 
—  a  condition  very  analogous  to  founder  in  the  horse, 
though  proceeding  from  a  different  cause.*  Or,  once 
more,  by  somewhat  diminishing  the  frequent  dose, 
these  seemingly  greater  evils  may  be  avoided,  while  yet 
the  whole  frame  is  being  sapped  and  undermined ;  not 
an  organ  or  a  tissue  left  undisturbed  in  its  structure  or 
function. 

In  other  words,  alcohol,  according  to  its  dose,  and  the 
susceptibility  of  its  victim,  is  either  acute  or  chronic  in 
its  working ;  a  sudden  poison,  or  a  slow  one. 

"A  madman  casteth  firebrands,  arrows,  and  death,  and 
saith,  ^Am  not  I  in  sport  V  "  And  there  is  many  a  man 
— virtually  mad,  on  at  least  one  point — a  monomaniac — 
who  daily  saturates  himself  with  this  poison,  and  seeks 
moreover  to  scatter  and  inject  it  into  others  —  jestingly 
announcing,  in  the  midst  of  an  uncomfortable  conviction 
that  what  he  says  is  true,  that  if  it  be  a  poison,  as  the 
doctors  allege,  it  is  at  least  a  slow  one.  Slow  it  may  be, 
yet  sure. 

From  this  we  learn,  that  if  a  man  design  to  commit 
murder,  he  cannot  use  a  more  certain  agent  than  alcohol ; 
and  that,  if  bent  on  suicide,  he  will  find  it  equally  effec- 
tual. But  if  he  wish  to  be  free  from  blood-guiltiness,  in 
regard  to  both  himself  and  others,  he  will  refrain  from 

*  In  my  young  days  of  horsemanship,  it  was  an  invariable  caution 
given  as  we  started  merrily  from  the  door — "  See  that  you  don't  over- 
ride the  beast,  and  be  sure  not  to  give  it  too  much  loater  when  it's 
warm."  The  alcohol-founder  in  man  has  seldom  any  connection 
with  either  water  or  overwork. 


96  alcohol:   its  power. 

the  use  of  this  agent,  in  such  amount  and  manner  as 
are  invariably — sooner  or  later  —  productive  of  the 
poisonous  result. 

II.  The  power  of  alcohol  as  a  medicine. — This,  too,  is 
great;  and,  in  accordance  with  its  strength,  requires  most 
skilful  management. 

It  is  a  narcotic,  we  have  seen,  with  preliminary  stimu- 
lant power.  And  it  is  this  stimulant  action  which  is 
usually  employed  in  medicine.  If  we  wish  to  keep  a 
part  constantly  cold,  great  care  and  nicety  are  required 
in  managing  the  frigorific  application  —  say  a  cold  cloth 
— lest,  through  inattention,  it  become  hot,  and  so  induce 
the  very  opposite  result  to  that  which  is  desired.  So 
with  alcohol,  the  stimulant  action  needs  a  constant  and 
careful  watching,  lest,  by  overdose  and  overaction,  it  pass 
on  into  the  second  or  sedative  stage.  Often,  no  doubt, 
a  small  amount  of  the  narcotic  effect  would  seem  to  be 
of  use  in  modifying  the  stimulant,  and  so  giving  tone,  as 
it  were,  as  well  as  action,  to  the  organ  or  system  worked 
upon.     But  this  requires  nice  handling. 

The  brain,  and  the  nervous  system  in  general,  we  have 
seen  to  be  the  parts  chiefly  acted  on  in  the  physiological 
working  of  alcohol.  And,  accordingly,  the  remedy,  when 
properly  used,  is  of  special  service  in  great  nervous  de- 
pression, by  injury  or  disease ;  continued  for  hours,  or  for 
days.  To  oppose,  when  need  is,  the  shock  of  injury— 
as  in  falls,  blows,  fractures,  wounds,  burns,*  and  to  coun- 

*  Let  it  be  remembered,  however,  that  in  such  emergencies  it  may 
be  made  to  do  the  greatest  harm,  through  its  very  success  as  a  stimu- 
lant.    A  man  gets  stunned  by  a  blow  or  fall,  and  is  lying  pale  and 


ALCOHOL    AS    A    MEDICINE.  97 

teract  the  sinking  tendency  in  fevers  and  unhealthy  in- 
flammations, alcohol  in  small  repeated  doses  is  admirably 
efficient. 

It  stimulates  the  heart  and  general  circulation,  too; 
and,  in  some  affections  of  ^that  organ,  feeble  action  may 
be  helpfully  supported  by  a  judicious  use  of  alcoholics. 
Caution,  however,  is  greatly  needed  when  the  remedy 
comes  to  be  repeated  on  many  occasions,  or  long  sustained 
in  any  one  occasion,  lest  that  peculiar  diseased  condition 
of  the  heart  and  arterial  tissue  be  induced,  which  alco- 
hol's continued  presence  in  the  blood  so  frequently  occa- 
sions (page  35). 

It  stimulates  the  kidney,  and  so  may  act  as  a  diure- 
tic ;  and  when  other  remedies  are  not  at  hand,  or  have 
already  failed,  it  may  be  used  either  alone  or  in  combi- 
nation —  unless  contra-indicated  by  peculiarities  of  the 
case. 

When  the  powers  of  life  are  sinking,  from  any  cause 
—  with  cold  surface,  feeble  pulse,  and  general  exhaus- 
tion— alcohol  is  often  essential  as  a  stimulant.  The  life 
of  many  a  one  has  been  saved  by  it.  But  all  depends 
upon  the  regulation  of  the  dose.    Let  the  effect  advance 


senseless.  A  blood-vessel  has  been  torn  in  Ms  head,  and  if  he  lie  in 
this  languid  state  for  some  hours,  nature  will  plaster  up  the  rent; 
and  there  will  be  no  escape  of  blood,  when  the  patient  gradually 
comes  to  himself  again.  But  in  meddlesome  kindness,  a  stinjulant 
is  given  prematurely —  and,  unfortunately,  wine,  whisky,  brandy,  are 
always  at  hand  —  the  blood  is  made  to  circulate  in  force  ere  ever  the 
rent  is  healed,  blood  escapes,  apoplexy  is  produced,  and  the  man  dies, 
not  of  the  hurt,  but  of  the  remedy.  Even  as  a  medicine,  alcohol 
needs  the  greatest  care.  Not  only  is  there  a  time  for  everything : 
time  IS  everything. 

7 


98  alcohol;  its  power. 

to  the  narcotic  or  sedative  stage,  and  death  will  be  has- 
tened in  consequence.  The  small  doses,  skilfully  regu- 
lated and  repeated,  and  the  effect  of  each  watched  by 
some  competent  eye  and  hand,  alone  can  be  either  ser- 
viceable or  safe.       • 

In  one  case,  a  large  dose  may  be  used  medicinally. 
In  cramp,  especially  of  a  vital  part,  there  may  be  no 
other  narcotic  by ;  and,  to  save  life,  it  may  be  needful 
to  give  such  an  alcoholic  dose  as  shall  attain  the  narcotic 
or  sedative  result.  If  the  ordinary  medicine-chest  be 
at  hand,  however,  there  is  more  than  one  anti-spasmodic 
infinitely  to  be  preferred. 

In  smaller  doses  it  is  a  carminative;  and  it  enters 
into  the  construction  of  most  of  the  fluids  of  that  class 

—  the  warm  tinctures,  for  example.  For  colic  and  fla- 
tulency, accordingly,  it  may  answer  well  —  provided 
there  be  no  inflammatory  complication,  or  error  in 
diagnosis. 

In  dyspeptics  of  a  certain  class,  in  whom  the  stomach 
is  deficient  in  tone  and  energy,  small  and  cautious  doses 
of  the  milder  alcoholics — such  as  wine  and  malt  liquors 

—  may  be  of  service.  And  when  such  defect  is  the 
result  of  natural  formation,  all  but  congenital,  the  use 
of  such  stimulus  may  require  to  be  even  long  continued. 
But  in  all  cases  of  accidental  origin,  the  medication 
should  be  temporary — means  being  devised  and  carried 
out  for  removing  those  causes  on  which  the  atony  de- 
pends, and  compensating  by  tonic  remedies  for  the  evil 
already  done. 

It  is  to  such  cases  that  the  apostolic  precept  applies : 
"  Drink  no  longer  water,  but  use  a  little  wine  for  thy 


ALCOHOL    AS    FOOD.  99 

stomach's  sake,  and  thine  often  infirmities."  Strange 
that  men  should  wrest  this  into  an  injunction  against 
water  drinking,  and  in  favor  of  wine  drinking,  in  gene- 
ral !  Do  they  not  see  that  Timothy  —  this  pattern  of 
men,  fearing  God  from  his  youth  up  —  was  by  habit  a 
water  drinker  ?  that  he  was  to  use  wine,  not  as  a  luxury, 
not  to  please  his  palate,  but  as  a  medicine — for  his  sto- 
mach's sake,  and  his  often  infirmities  ?  and  that,  even 
then  and  thus,  it  was  only  "  a  little  wine "  that  he  was 
to  use  ?  How  can  we  torture  this  passage  into  a  per- 
mission, far  less  a  recommendation,  to  use  wine  for  the 
palate's  sake,  without  infirmity  of  health,  and  by  the 
pint  or  quart? 

The  power  of  alcohol,  as  a  medicine,  is  limited  to 
those  cases  in  which  a  morbid  necessity  exists  for  its 
use.  In  all  other  circumstances,  it  cannot  do  good,  and 
not  only  may,  but  must  do  more  or  less  harm,  when  taken 
in  any  considerable  quantity,  or  for  a  long  endurance. 
Even  in  the  suitable  cases,  the  dose  —  ordinarily  small 
—  must  be  carefully  regulated,  and  the  efiects  watched, 
lest  overaction  and  injury  ensue. 

III.  The  pmoer  of  aholiol  as  food.  —  This  is  easily 
stated  :  properly  speaking,  none  at  all. 

It  has  no  power  to  repair  waste  of  tissue.  And  though 
it  has  power — very  considerable  power  —  to  supply  fuel 
for  the  maintenance  of  temperature,  yet,  when  ordinary 
food  is  taken  in  anything  like  sufficient  quantity,  alco- 
hol as  a  combustible  is  both  unnecessary  and  injurious. 

It  is  only  when  there  is  no  food,  or  food  insufiicient 
in  quantity; or  '^[lialit;^,  t\M^  'XtcoMnsM  hs&l^'k  substi- 


100  alcohol:    its    power. 

tute  for  it ;  and  then  only  as  a  means  for  maintaining 
temperature.  It  gives  no  strength,  and  repairs  no  waste; 
and,  therefore,  even  as  a  partial  substitute  for  food,  it  is 
not  suitable  for  continued  use,  but  only  for  the  tempo- 
rary demands  of  an  emergency. 

The  power  as  ordinary  food,  then,  is  as  nothing;  while 
its  power  as  a  substitute  for  food  is  limited,  both  as  to 
extent  and  time. 

IV.  The  power  of  alcohol  as  a  condiment;  or  auxiliary 
to  the  healthy  digestion  of  food.  This,  too,  will  be  most 
truly  represented  by  a  negative  quantity. 

It  may  be  a  help  to  weak  or  imperfect  digestion,  we 
have  seen ;  but  it  by  no  means  follows  that  its  action 
will  be  the  same  on  a  stomach  that  is  sound  and  healthy. 
On  the  contrary,  all  the  general  principles  we  have  laid 
down  go  to  prove  the  opposite. 

Every  one  must  at  once  admit  that  it  has  no  analogy 
whatever  to  our  best  and  most  common  condiment,  salt. 
And  suppose  that,  like  mustard,  pepper,  or  other  spice, 
it  were  to  act  as  a  simple  stimulant  —  what  then?  The 
stomach,  at  present  healthy,  and  consequently  sufficient 
in  its  working,  is  excited  to  an  increase  of  its  digestive 
power;  more  food  is  converted  into  tissue-repairing  mat- 
ter than  the  system  actually  requires ;  the  equipoise  of 
health  is  upset,  and  the  inevitable  consequence  is  disease 
—  manifesting  itself  more  or  less  plainly  in  plethora, 
biliousness,  fever,  or  other  disorder.  Let  us  profit  by 
the  quaint  but  pregnant  epitaph  on  the  tombstone  of  the 
poor  man  who  would  dabble  in  physic :  "  I  was  well,  but 
would  b\3})^ttef,  a'pd'htjre'Ijlicr.'/   v    •*  ;  i  oc  r    o 


ALCOHOL    AS    A    LUXURY.  101 

Alcohol  is  not  in  reality  a  condiment  3  and  when  used 
as  such  in  health,  has  a  power  only  for  evil.  That  is 
very  appreciable  as  regards  its  primary  effect  on  the 
stomach ;  and  is  still  more  marked  with  reference  to  its 
general  effect,  after  its  invariable  and  speedy  absorption 
into  the  system. 

y.  The  power  of  alcohol  as  a  luxury. — In  one  sense, 
this  is  undeniably  great;  else  why  the  vast  consumption 
of  it  as  such  ? 

The  first  effect  is  to  stimulate  the  stomach,  as  we  have 
seen;  and  by  exciting  the  heart,  too,  to  quicken  the 
general  circulation.  This  gives  a  "glow  to  the  system, 
and  is  pleasant  to  the  animal  sense. 

Absorbed,  as  it  quickly  is,  it  acts  on  the  brain;  and 
the  functions  of  this  organ  undergo  exaltation.  The 
intellect  has  a  quicker  and  brighter  movement;  memory 
is  put  upon  its  mettle ;  and  the  play  of  fancy  becomes 
more  free.  This,  like  the  former  feeling,  is  agreeable 
to  one's-self,  and  also  favorable  to  social  enjoyment;  the 
"pleasures  of  the  table"  are  enhanced.  But  such  a 
state  is  not  favorable  for  intellectual  work,  inasmuch  as, 
even  with  a  comparatively  moderate  dose,  the  tendency 
is  very  decidedly  to  the  diminution  of  the  power  of 
voluntary  control,  to  the  perversion  of  intellectual  per- 
ception, to  the  confounding  of  judgment  or  reason,  to 
the  abasing  of  all  moral  principle,  and  to  the  arousing 
of  animal  passion  and  desire.  The  tendency,  I  repeat, 
is  always  in  this  direction;  and,  therefore,  it  becomes 
at  once  apparent  that  such  a  luxury  must  always  be  in- 
dulged with  no  little  risk  to  the  moral  and  intellectual 


102  alcohol:  its  power. 

Ileal th  of  the  indulger;  while  the  considerations  in  which 
we  have  already  been  engaged,  make  it  abundantly  plain 
that  the  danger  to  his  physical  estate  is  at  least  as  certain. 

And,  besides,  this  excitement  is  not  got  for  nothing : 
it  is  purchased ;  and  part  of  the  price  paid  is  reaction. 
There  is  first  the  "ploy,''  and  then  the  "reckoning." 
"  Mine  host,"  moreover,  proves  a  most  exacting  and  re- 
lentless creditor ;  not  one  item  of  his  claim  in  full  will 
he  forego ;  sooner  or  later  the  last  farthing  must  be  paid 
up.  The  stimulant  effect,  having  in  due  time  passed 
away,  is  succeeded  by  a  sedative  one ;  and  the  heart  that 
had  just  been  enjoying  alcoholic  gladness,  finds  alcoholic 
sadness  sternly  awaiting  it,  with  all  the  certainty  of  se- 
quence between  cause  and  effect.  For  the  mercury  of 
the  animal  pneumometer,  when  raised  by  the  unnatural 
heat  of  spirit  of  wine,  does  not,  on  the  removal  of  this, 
fall  back  to  the  old  level  from  which  it  rose,  but  sinks 
lower;  and  the  more  sudden  and  great  the  rising,  the 
greater  and  more  permanent  is  the  subsidence.  So  that 
were  the  luxurious  bent  on  avoiding  the  marring  of  their 
pleasure,  they  behoved  to  take  their  alcoholic  luxury  in 
small  quantities,  and  frequently  repeated  —  every  hour 
or  so  —  as  physicians  give  their  alcoholic  medicine  in 
treating  disease.  That  would  be  the  only  intelligible 
plan,  at  least,  of  endeavoring  to  grasp  the  flower  without 
the  thorn;  and,  after  all,  it  would  fail  —  the  law  of  tole- 
rance proving  fatal  to  it.  What  succeeds  in  producing 
and  maintaining  a  certain  efiect  in  the  case  of  disease,  is 
by  reason  of  its  success  then  all  the  more  certain  to  fail 
when  applied  to  the  condition  of  health. 

Taken  in  large  quantities,  in  what  is  ordinarily  called 


ALCOHOL   AS   A    LUXURY.  103 

excess,  these  evils  of  alcohol  are  all  aggravated.  Reac-^ 
tion  is  great.  The  man  that  in  his  cups  was  the  bravest 
and  the  best  of  fellows,  the  happiest  and  heartiest  of 
good  companions,  is  the  most  miserable  wretch  alive  next 
day;  and  by  this  state  of  absolute  "horror,"  is  driven  to 
seek  a  mercurial  elevation  once  more,  by  a  fresh  pur- 
chase of  the  same  article  —  on  each  occasion  at  a  higher 
and  higher  price.  By  a  depraved  and  ruinous  instinct, 
the  man  looks  fbr  the  antidote  in  renewal  of  the  poison. 
"  When  shall  I  awake  ?   I  will  seek  it  yet  again." 

This  luxurious  attainment  of  pleasure  is  not  like  that 
which  comes  by  food  to  the  hungry,  rest  to  the  weary, 
or  draughts  of  cold  water  to  the  thirsty;  a  thing  to  be 
had  always  on  the  same  terms  day  by  day,  and  never 
palling  by  repetition.  What  both  gratified  and  satisfied 
to-day,  may  do  neither,  and  certainly  will  not  do  both, 
six  months  or  a  year  hence.  The  brain  gets  hardened, 
we  have  seen — actually  hardened — by  alcoholic  satura- 
tion ;  and,  in  like  manner,  though  not  so  literally,  the 
constant  use  of  alcoholics,  even  in  moderate  quantity, 
tends  to  harden  the  system  to  their  effects ;  so  that  the 
longer  they  are  used,  there  is  a  growing  necessity  for  a 
greater  amount  in  almost  each  successive  dose,  in  order 
to  obtain  the  desired  result — until  the  whole  system  be- 
comes so  debilitated  and  depraved,  that  but  a  small  quan- 
tity suffices  to  produce  inebriation.  Such  is  the  tendency 
in  all  cases ;  and  in  the  great  majority  of  cases  -^  in  all, 
indeed,  when  there  is  not  the  restraint  of  high  moral 
principle  and  habitual  self-command  —  it  is  realized. 

And  yet  again :  If  once  habituated  to  this  indul- 
gence, even   to  a  moderate   extent,  daily,  it   becomes 


104  alcohol:  its  power. 

enslaving.  As  in  the  case  of  tobacco,  it  grows  into  a 
necessary  of  life — a  luxury  in  one  sense  no  longer — and 
cannot  be  laid  aside  without  an  effort ;  such  effort  im- 
plying not  only  the  loss  of  pleasure  and  comfort,  but  the 
invasion  of  discomfort  and  pain  of  no  slight  amount 
and  degree. 

Thus  we  see  that  the  power  of  alcohol  as  a  luxury, 
though  in  one  sense  undeniably  great,  is  not  free  from 
most  serious  qualifications  :  a  power  to  free,  with  a  power 
to  enslave ;  a  power  to  gladden,  with  a  power  to  sadden ; 
a  power  to  raise  animal  enjoyment,  with  a  power  to  de- 
press what  is  best  in  the  mind  and  spirit;  a  power  to 
impart  a  temporary  sense  of  increased  health  and  vigor, 
with  a  power  of  all  the  while  sapping  and  undermining 
both.  And  it  falls  to  be  the  duty  of  every  sane  man 
to  weigh  these  matters  gravely;  the  boon  with  the 
bane,  the  purchase  with  the  price,  the  pleasure  with  the 
penalty. 

Men  in  health  and  comfort  have  no  apology  for  adopt- 
ing or  continuing  such  a  luxury,  if,  after  calm  consider- 
ation of  the  subject,  they  have  been  brought  to  an 
intelligent  conviction  that  the  evil  overbalances  the 
good.  For  the  miserable  in  mind  and  body,  we  can  at 
least  find,  if  we  cannot  admit,  an  excuse.  He  has  a 
strong  temptation,  and  a  bitter  experience  tells  him  he 
can  secure  a  temporary  success.  "  Give  strong  drink 
unto  him  that  is  ready  to  perish,  and  wine  unto  those 
that  be  of  heavy  hearts.  Let  him  drink  and  forget  his 
poverty,  and  remember  his  misery  no  more.''  But  here 
again  Scripture  is  often  "wrested"  to  their  "own  destruc- 
tion."    They  will  interpret  this  literally,  at  least  they 


ALCOHOL    AS    A    LUXURY.  105 

act  as  if  they  did  so;  as  if  the  "forgetting"  of  poverty, 
and  the  "  remembering  of  misery  no  more,"  were  final 
and  conclusive.  They  are  lulled  into  a  pleasant  dream, 
but  the  dream  is  not  forever ;  sooner  or  later  they  must 
awake,  and  the  dread  realities  of  their  lives  are  all  the 
more  dreadful  when  thsown  into  sudden  contrast  with 
the  delusive  dream.  Alcohol,  in  this  respect,  is  Satan's 
chloroform.*  For  his  own  ends  he  drugs  men  with  it, 
or  lets  them  drug  themselves,  when  pained  and  misera- 
ble ;  for  a  time  they  not  only  forget  their  dulness,  but 
are  borne  away  into  regions  of  happiness ;  but,  as  the 
influences  of  the  drug  cease,  the  pain  and  the  misery 
return — too  often  with  a  redoubled  poignancy.  If  they 
would  be  rid  of  their  evil,  they  must  have  done  with 
such  deceitful  palliatives,  and  brace  themselves  to  face 
the  only  legitimate  cure. 

Alcohol  is  alleged  to  have  other  powers  besides  those 
that  can  be  conveniently  arranged  under  the  heads  of 
Poison,  Medicine,  Food,  and  Luxury.  These  we  shall 
now  proceed  briefly  to  consider. 

*  Carrying  out  the  surgical  illustration  here,  let  us  ask  what  is.  the 
operation  performed  by  this  enemy  of  mankind,  while  his  patient  is 
made  for  a  time  senseless  to  the  pain  ?  Not  the  excision  of  any  mor- 
bid and  malignant  growth ;  not  amputation  of'  a  member  which, 
through  injury  or  disease,  has  ceased  to  be  useful,  and  become  inju- 
rious to  the  system ;  not  the  use  of  the  cautery  for  the  cure  of  any 
disease  either  of  body  or  soul ;  but  excision  of  the  better  part  of  the 
mental  nature,  amputation  of  moral  control,  and  the  searing  of  the 
conscience  with  a  hot  iron  —  not  done  all  at  once,  but  at  many  sit- 
tings; the  foolish  patient  "etherized"  all  the  while. 


106  alcohol:  its  power. 

VI.  The  -power  of  alcohol  to  sustain  a  man  under 
hodily  labor. — Many  believe  that  such  power  exists  to  a 
very  great  degree,  and  they  ground  their  belief  on  per- 
sonal observation.     All  is  based,  however,  on  a  fallacy 

Labor  exhausts  vital  strength — wasting  structure  — 
lowering  function.  The  natural  remedy  for  such  ex- 
haustion is  food  and  rest.  Waste  of  tissue  is  repaired, 
and  the  living  power  of  the  renovated  tissue  reaccumu- 
lates,  ready  for  a  fresh  bout  of  working. 

The  exhaustion  of  bodily  labor,  remember,  implies 
disintegration  of  substance,  as  well  as  diminution  of 
power,  especially  in  two  tissues  —  the  muscular  and  ner- 
vous :  the  muscular  is  the  direct  agent  of  work ;  the 
nervous  is  the  inciter  and  inspector  —  the  "oversman;'' 
and  both  are  more  or  less  exhausted  by  their  respective 
duties. 

Now,  how  is  such  exhaustion  to  be  either  retarded  or 
recovered  from  ?  We  again  say,  by  food  and  rest,  pro- 
perly arranged  in  regard  to  time  and  quantity,  as  we 
have  elsewhere  endeavored  to  explain.*  Let  a. man 
have  sufficient  food,  and  sufficient  rest,  at  the  proper 
times ;  and  he  needs  no  other  corporeal  help  for  the  due 
discharge  of  his  daily  toil.  He  is  thus  enabled  to  over- 
take as  much  work  as  his  frame  is  naturally  fit  to  bear. 
And  if,  under  such  circumstances,  he  break  down,  or 
threaten  to  do  so,  it  is  a  sign,  not  that  he  needs  more 
working-power,  but  that,  being  overtasked,  a  portion 
of  the  exacted  work  should  be  foregone.  And,  conse- 
quently, the  man  who  stimulates  himself,  under  such  cir- 

*  "  Labor  Lightened,  not  Lost." 


SUSTAINING    UNDER    BODILY    LABOR.     107 

cumstaiices,  is  guilty  of  folly;  while  he  who  stimulates 
another,  in  similar  circumstances,  is  guilty  of  cruelty 
and  oppression. 

Now,  can  alcohol  be  brought  under  the  category  of 
"  food  '^  here  ?  As  such  only  can  it  prove  a  true  anti- 
dote to  exhaustion  by  labor.  No  one  asserts  that  it  has 
any  power  to  repair  muscular  tissue.  Has  it  any  power 
to  nourish  or  repair  nervous  tissue  ?  This  question  is 
open  to  debate;  but  our  best  authorities  answer  it  in  the 
negative. 

Well  then,  if  you  give  alcohol  to  a  man  exhausted, 
or  being  exhausted,  by  labor,  what  effect  does  it  pro- 
duce ?  Does  it  not  revive  him,  giving  to  his  hand  a 
stronger  grasp,  and  to  his  limbs  new  vigor  ?  do  not  the 
strokes  of  his  hammer  gain  a  fresh  force,  and  does  not 
the  task  which  he  had  almost  abandoned  become  rapidly 
consumed?  How  is  this?  Not  that  he  has  got  any 
nourishment  or  repair — any  real  return  of  strength ;  but 
because  he  has  been  goaded  on  to  expend  the  remainder 
of  his  then  existing  strength  or  working  capital,  more 
rapidly  and  determinedly  than  he  otherwise  would  or 
could  (or  should)  have  done  —  the  ultimate  result,  of 
course,  being,  that  when  the  task  is  done,  the  man  is 
done  too.  The  exhaustion  is  infinitely  greater  than  it 
otherwise  would  have  been. 

The  alcohol  does  not  give  substance  and  strength  to 
either  of  the  decaying  tissues;  it  only  stimulates  one 
of  them  —  the  nervous ;  and  so  forces  on  this  to  force 
on  the  other.  The  nervous  system  is  to  the  muscular 
as  the  rider  to  the  horse,  guiding  and  controlling  its 
movements.     Alcohol  provides  this  rider  with  a  spur 


108  alcohol:    its    power. 

and  whip;  whereby  the  poor  horse,  jaded  though  he 
be,  may  be  urged  on  to  do  an  amount  of  work  which 
otherwise  he  would  have  broken  down  under.  With 
what  benefit  to  the  horse  ?  Exhaustion,  fatigue,  founder. 
With  what  benefit  to  the  rider  ?  There  is  retribution 
here :  the  result  is,  fatigue  and  founder  too ;  for  the 
alcohol,  acting  as  a  stimulant  to  the  nervous  system, 
exhausts  its  force  and  disintegrates  its  tissue  in  compel- 
ling it  to  urge  on  the  muscles  to  a  more  rapid  exhaus- 
tion of  their  force  and  disintegration  of  their  tissue. 
The  spur  and  whip,  in  their  effects,  exhaust  the  horse, 
but  the  labor  of  whipping  and  spurring  exhausts  the 
rider  too ;  and  after  the  effort  is  over,  both  the  inciter 
and  the  incited  are  in  much  the  same  plight.  Had  it 
not  been  better  to  have  ceased  from  work  for  a  time, 
giving  the  beast  of  burden  its  food  and  rest,  the  dis- 
mounted rider  likewise  seeking  his  refreshment  and 
repose ;  so  that,  after  a  while,  both  might  have  started 
with  new  mettle? 

If  alcohol  has  any  power  whatever  in  giving  strength, 
wind,  endurance,  condition,  why  do  trainers  make  so 
little  use  of  it  in  preparing  their  men  for  feats  of  great 
exertion  ?  AU  trainers  use  it,  we  know,  most  sparingly ; 
not  only  in  small  quantity,  but  much  diluted.  And  the 
test  trainers  do  not  employ  it  at  all ;  strictly  forbidding 
its  use,  indeed,  because  experience  has  told  them  of  its 
hurtful  tendency,  in  opposing  rather  than  favoring  their 
object  in  view. 

"  Ah  but,"  you  reply,  "  when  the  hour  of  trial  has 
come — whether  it  be  in  the  strain  of  the  boat-race,  the 
stride  of  the  runner,  or  the  struggle  of  the  brutal  prize- 


SUSTAINING   UNDER    BODILY   LABOR.     109 

fight — is  there  not  then  the  ^bottle-holder'?  and,  judi- 
ciously administered,  does  not  alcohol  do  good  service, 
and  show  its  great  power,  in  sustaining  the  man  in  his 
work?"  To  this  we  answer,  that  the  supposed  case 
merely  proves  our  position.  The  trainer  did  not  use 
the  alcohol ;  the  hottle-holder  did.  Why  ?  Simply  be- 
cause, while  it  has  the  power  of  stimulating  a  man  in 
the  hour  of  exertion  to  take  every  drop  of  "  force  "  out 
of  himself  that  is  in,  it  has  no  power  of  strengthening  — 
no  power  of  putting  in  a  store  of  "  force,"  or  keeping  it 
maintained.  The  "  bottle-holder"  cannot  strengthen  his 
man  to  hit  a  harder  blow;  he  can  only  wahen  Mm  up,  so 
that  his  existing  strength  may  be  made  to  go  as  fast  and 
far  as  it  can. 

In  connection  with  this  matter,  a  special  reform  in 
nomenclature  is  much  required.  "Refreshments  sold 
here,"  says  the  alcohol-vender;  and  "We  must  have 
refreshment,"  says  the  alcohol-drinker.  By  that  ex- 
pression they  do  not  mean  the  real  refreshments  of  food 
and  rest,  but  wine,  brandy,  beer,  and  all  the  alcoholics. 
In  one  sense,  no  doubt,  these  may  make  a  man  "  fresh " 
—  according  to  the  slang  acceptation  of  the  term;  but 
that  is  their  only  claim  to  the  title  of  "  refreshments." 
They  cannot  truly  refresh  under  the  fatigue  and  exhaus- 
tion of  labor ;  they  only  stimulate,  and  that  in  rather  a 
left-handed  way. 

And  the  alcohol-vender  is  not  content  with  styling 
himself  a  purveyor  of  "  refreshments ; "  he  must  assume 
the  name  of  "  victualler  "  too  !  "  Why  are  the  trout  not 
taking  to-day  ?  "  said  a  disappointed  angler  on  Tweedside 
to  an  old  sergeant  of  dragoons,  who  plied  the  gentle  art 


110  alcohol:   its  power. 

as  a  trade/ and  was  great  authority  in  all  matters  pisca- 
torial. "  Ah,"  said  he,  "  I  dinna  ken ;  but  there's  some- 
thing far  wrang;  they'll  no  come  up  to  their  vittels  the  day 
ava ! "  That  is  the  only  precedent,  that  I  know  of,  for 
alcohol-venders  designating  themselves  "  victuallers,"  and 
their  goods,  "  victuals."  The  poor  trout,  darting  after 
the  gay  and  gaudy  fly,  finds  a  sad  reaction  in  the  barbed 
steel  that  is  struck  into  his  flesh.  And  the  tippler  ex- 
periences a  like  penalty  in  the  after-workings  of  his 
*' victuals"  and  "refreshment." 

But  alcohol,  as  we  have  seen,  is  not  without  its  advo- 
cates—  intelligent,  interested,  and  indefatigable.  They 
do  not  easily  abandon  its  cause.  Driven  to  admit  that 
it  has  no  power  to  repair  tissue  and  restore  strength,  they 
will  yet  put  in  a  claim  for  it  as  a  means  of  retarding  the 
exhaustion  of  strength,  and  diminishing  the  disintegra- 
tion of  tissue  —  on  this  ground :  Observation  shows  that 
a  working  man,  under  the  use  of  alcohol,  throws  off  less 
waste  tissue,  by  the  organs  of  excretion,  than  he  does 
without  it.  Granted.  But  because  less  waste  material 
is  thrown  off",  does  it  necessarily  follow  that  less  waste  is 
made.  Is  it  not  at  least  possible,  that  the  same  or  even 
greater  waste  taking  place,  more  is  retained  within  the 
system  —  in  the  blood,  contaminating  that  all-important 
fluid  ?  In  other  words,  may  not  the  effect  of  alcohol  be, 
not  to  delay  or  diminish  the  waste  of  tissue,  but,  while 
acting  in  a  precisely  opposite  way,  to  delay  and  diminish 
the  getting  rid  of  that  waste  —  the  amount  of  which  it 
has  increased  ? 

All  research  goes  to  answer  that  question  according  to 
the  latter  alternative.    Alcohol,  we  have  seen,  has  a  very 


SUSTAINING   UNDER    BODILY   LABOR.     Ill 

decided  tendency,  in  the  animal  system,  to  get  rid  of 
itself  by  oxidation  and  excretion,  usurping  the  place  of 
matters  natural  to  the  blood,  which  ought  to  be  oxidated 
and  excreted,  and  which  would  have  been  so  but  for  the 
forwardness  of  the  alcohol.  They  remain,  consequently, 
circulating  in  the  blood,  which  becomes  less  and  less 
arterial  in  its  character,  more  and  more  venous,  less  and 
less  fit  for  nourishing  the  frame.  Now,  here  comes  in  a 
third  injurious  effect  of  the  alcohol )  and  its  relation  to 
labor,  therefore,  will  stand  as  follows  :  —  1.  It  does  not 
directly  repair  and  nourish,  as  azotised  food  does.  2. 
So  far  from  retarding,  it  creates  a  moi'e  rapid  consump- 
tion or  waste  of  material,  than  otherwise  would  have 
been  the  case;  so  increasing  the  ultimate  amount  of 
exhaustion.  3.  By  preventing  oxidation  and  excretion 
of  the  increased  waste,  it  contaminates  the  blood,  and 
sending  down  to  the  muscles  and  nerves  a  fluid  not  suffi- 
cient for  their  due  nourishment  and  repair,  still  further 
aggravates  the, evil.  In  other  words,  so  far  from  retard- 
ing waste,  it  hurries  it  on ;  so  far  from  favoring,  it  op- 
poses the  power  of  nourishment  and  repair.  Alcohol 
does  not  contribute  one  solitary  brick  to  maintain  the 
wall  of  the  animal  economy;  nor  does  it  at  all  retard  the 
spontaneous  crumbling  of  it.  On  the  contrary,  it  both 
enlarges  the  existing  breach,  and  thwarts  the  masonry 
that  would  fill  it  up.  He  is  surely  an  unwise  builder, 
therefore,  who  uses  so  distempered  a  mortar ! 

Food  and  air,  besides  rest,  are  specially  required  by 
the  working-man ;  and  alcohol,  according  to  its  advocates, 
helps  him  to  both.  But  we  have  seen  that  such  is  not 
the  case.     It  is  no  true  food ;  and  its  atmospheric  rela- 


112  alcohol:   its  power. 

tioiis  amount  practically  to  an  obstructive  denial  of 
oxygen.  While  the  supply  of  that  is  limited,  alcohol 
takes  the  lion's  share,  and  leaves  the  food  and  waste 
starving.  In  consequence,  ill-digested  food,  and  unmo- 
dified waste,  become  pent  up  in  the  system;  and  the 
result  is  as  if  the  man  were  breathing  a  foul  atmosphere, 
or  had  his  head  partially  aJffected  by  an  exhausted  re- 
ceiver. Let  a  man,  after  a  hard  day's  work,  retire  to 
rest  under  the  "night-cap"  of  a  goodly  allowance  of 
alcoholics,  and  it  is  practically  as  if  he  had  shut  himself 
into  a  box-bed,  or  gone  to  sleep  on  the  top  of  a  dunghill, 
or  tied  a  cravat  tightly  round  his  neck  almost  to  strangu- 
lation. Air  gets  into  his  lungs,  but  it  does  not  do  the 
work  it  is  intended  for  there ;  the  needful  matters  are 
oxidated  imperfectly,  if  at  all;  and  he  is  not  likely,  under 
such  circumstances,  therefore,  to  awaken  strengthened 
and  refreshed.  On  the  contrary,  dry  tongue,  aching 
head,  heavy  eyes,  weak  back,  dull  spirits,  and  leaden 
brain,  all  tell  him  that  his  lungs  have  been  sadly  de- 
frauded, or  cheated  somehow,  when  he  was  sleeping. 

If  we  are  to  have  cordials  and  restoratives,  let  us  have 
those  which  really  do  something  of  what  alcohol  pro- 
fesses to  do  and  does  not.  You  have  seen  a  thoughtless 
and  unskilful  horseman,  his  hands  busy  with  the  whip, 
his  seat  slack,  his  legs  dangling  and  jerking  like  a  gal- 
vanized frog's,  his  spurred  and  bloody  heels  going  fast 
and  furious  "  like  a  fiddler's  elbow,''  his  reins  bose  on 
the  horse's  neck,  its  nostrils  red  and  heaving,  its  eyes 
bloodshot,  its  ears  drooping,  its  panting  flanks  drawn  up. 
The  animal  is  galloping  painfully  through  the  deep 
plough ;  it  .will  drag  weary  legs  home  to-night ;  and  very 


SUSTAINING    UNDER    BODILY    LABOR.      113 

probably  it  may  never  do  a  day's  work  more.  The  rider 
is  alcohol  j  or  rather,  to  fall  back  upon  our  former  illus- 
tration, it  is  the  nervous  system  riding  to  the  orders  and 
wearing  the  livery  of  alcohol.  But  there  is  another  be- 
side him.  Firm  in  the  saddle,  and  with  his  hands  well 
down,  he  has  a  skilful  pull  upon  the  hridle;  keeping 
the  horse  well  together,  he  guides  his  every  motion  by 
the  pressure  of  an  unarmed  limb  —  the  two  making 
common  cause,  as  if  a  centaur.  That  horse  has  as  much 
to  carry,  and  as  far  and  as  fast  to  go,  as  the  other ;  but 
he  is  not  distressed;  he  will  find  his  stable  cheerily, 
and  a  night's  rest  and  feeding  will  leave  him  fresh  and 
uninjured. 

Dropping  metaphor,  cofiee  and  tea  are  far  safer  stimu- 
lants to  the  working-man  than  any  form  of  alcohol. 
Experience  says  that  with  them  he  can  do  more  work, 
and  better  work,  for  a  longer  time,  than  with  any  form 
or  quantity  of  alcohol.  Practical  and  personal  observa- 
tion has  proved  it ;  and  science  does  not  refuse  its  con- 
firmation. For  physiologists  tell  us  that  these  comforts 
of  life  have  remarkable  power  —  especially  coffee  —  of 
toning  the  vascular  and  nervous  system,  and  at  the  same 
time  limiting  the  waste  of  tissue,*  while  they  have  none 
of  the  drawbacks  of  alcohol.  A  working-man  under 
alcohol,  once  more  let  me  remind  you,  gives  off  very 
little  waste  by  his  excretory  organs  —  the  liver  and 
kidney,  for  example ;  but  that  does  not  prove  that  little 

*  Dr.  J.  Lehmann  remarks  "  that  coffee  produces  on  the  organism 
two  chief  effects,  which  it  is  very  difficult  to  connect  together — viz., 
the  raising  the  activity  of  the  vascular  and  nervous  systems,  and  pro- 
tracting remarkably  the  decomposition  of  the  tissues."- 

8 


114  alcohol:   its  power. 

waste  is  made.  On  the  contrary,  there  is  every  reason 
to  believe  that  an  unusual  amount  of  waste  occurs,  but 
does  not  show,  because  kept  noxiously  circulating  within 
the  system.  A  double  harm  is  consequently  done.  An 
unusual  amount  of  the  man's  body  is  decomposed,  and 
what  remains  is  poisoned  and  enfeebled  by  the  waste 
being  in  great  part  retained.  On  the  other  hand,  a  man 
using  tea  or  coffee  instead  of  alcohol,  will  do  as  much 
work,  and  show  as  little  waste ;  and  yet  nothing  occurs 
to  prevent  all  that  does  run  to  waste  from  being  safely 
and  satisfactorily  got  rid  of.  Nothing  is  unnecessarily 
expended,  and  nothing  is  injuriously  retained;  whereas, 
in  the  case  of  alcol^ol,  it  is  the  converse  that  holds  true. 
Even  such  restoratives  as  these  —  simple  and  safe 
though  they  comparatively  be  —  are  not  absolutely  re- 
quired, however.  Look  to  facts,  and  we  shall  find  men 
undergoing  the  heaviest  possible  amount  of  bodily  labor 
with  the  use  of  the  essentials  only  —  food  and  water- 
Look  to  troops  campaigning.  Look  to  the  Guacho  of 
South  America,  of  whom  Sir  Francis  Head  remarks  — 
"As  his  constant  food  is  beef  and  water,  his  constitution 
is  so  strong  that  he  is  able  to  endure  great  fatigue ;  the 
distances  he  will  ride,  and  the  number  of  hours  he  will 
remain  on  horseback,  would  hardly  be  credited."  And 
lest  it  be  supposed  that  these  men  are  cast  in  some  pe- 
culiar mould,  not  fitting  for  us  commoner  mortals,  li§ten 
to  Sir  Francis's  experiment  on  himself.  He  did  as  they 
did;  and,  "after  I  had  been  riding  for  three  or  four 
months,"  says  he,  "  and  had  lived  upon  heef  and  water, 
I  found  myself  in  a  condition  which  I  can  only  describe 
by  saying  that  I  felt  no  exertion  could  Mil  me^ 


SUSTAINING    UNDER    BODILY    LABOR.     115 

What  is  meant  is,  that  when  restoratives  and  luxuries 
are  either  desired  or  needed,  it  will  be  true  wisdom  in 
the  working-man  to  eschew  the  alcoholics  in  favor  of 
^'  that  cup  which  cheers  but  not  inebriates." 

Water  and  milk,  no  doubt,  are  the  drinks  natural  to 
man;  and  rank,  accordingly,  as  articles  of  ordinary 
wholesome  diet.  Tea  and  coffee,  though  not  of  this 
class,  are  not  in  the  same  category  as  alcohol — they  are 
more  than  mere  luxuries,  and,  though  somewhat  medi- 
cinal, are  not  poisons.  They  are  not  without  some  fair 
claim  to  rank  as  food,  fitted  for  nutrition  as  well  as  respi- 
ration. Besides  the  active  principle,  theine  —  a  nitro- 
genous compound  —  they  contain  a  very  considerable 
proportion  of  starch  and  gum,  as  well  as  of  gluten ;  this 
last  in  such  amount  as  to  be  equal  to  one-fourth  of  the 
weight  of  the  dry  leaves.  In  ordinary  fusion,  indeed, 
this  gluten  is  but  sparingly  dissolved ;  but  were  the  pow- 
dered dry  leaves  consumed  as  beans  or  peas  are,  they 
would  prove  about  equally  nutritious.  There  is  also  a 
certain  proportion  of  fat  or  oil  in  both  tea  and  coffee; 
while  in  cocoa  the  amount  of  this  is  very  large. 

While  thus  these  things  may  rank  as  food — far  more 
truly  than  alcohol — they  are  in  another  sense  accessory 
to  food,  either  as  luxuries,  or  in  a  medicinal  point  of 
view.  For  besides  their  power  of  restraining  the  con- 
sumption of  tissue,  they  excite  a  peculiar  action  in  the 
nervous  system.  This  action  is  neither  truly  stimulant 
nor  sedative,  but  rather  tonic ;  soothing  when  there  is 
over-excitement,  rousing  when  there  is  depression;  and 
always  tending  to  relieve  the  nervous  centres  from  con- 
gestion of  blood.     Besides,  from  this  pleasant  and  bene- 


116  alcohol:   its  power. 

ficial  working  there  is  no  untoward  reaction,  unless  the 
tea  or  coffee  be  taken  in  inordinate  quantity;  then  — 
especially  in  the  case  of  coffee  —  unpleasant  symptoms 
do  occur,  affecting  both  the  circulating  and  nervous 
systems.     ' 

Tea  and  coffee,  then,  may  rank  both  as  food  and  medi- 
cine. And  the  question  naturally  arises,  in  reference  to 
their  latter  character,  Whether  the  copious  and  constant 
use  of  them  as  food  is  quite  proper  and  safe  ?  This,  as 
we  have  seen,  is  not  essential,  even  under  the  greatest 
exertion.  And  without  presuming  to  dogmatise,  we 
would  venture  to  say  that  when  used  as  ordinary  diet, 
or  as  luxuries  in  connection  with  it,  they  ought  to  be 
taken  weak,  as  well  as  in  moderate  quantity  —  in  other 
words,  temperately;*  while  large  and  strong  doses  ought 
to  be  reserved  for  the  necessities  of  the  nervous  system 
arising  from  exhaustion  by  labor  or  thought,  depression 
by  accident,  or  disorder  by  disease. 

When  judiciously  used,  they  may  contribute  greatly 
to  our  comfort — as  much  as  any  form  of  alcohol  can  do, 
and  with  none  of  its  sinister  results  on  body,  mind,  or 
morals.  Call  them  medicines,  if  you  will.  They  are 
"  domestic  medicines,"  at  once  safe  and  suitable ;  and, 
as  such,  the  canister  may  range  on  the  frugal  cupboard 
far  more  appropriately  than  the  decanter  or  the  black 
bottle,  the  tankard,  the  greybeard,  or  the  glass. 

The  great  advantage  of  the  water  drinker,  as  com- 
pared with  the  alcoholist,  under  work,  is  this :  He  has 

*  Some  have  alleged  that  the  success  of  homoeopathic  practitioners 
is  not  unconnected  with  the  sparing  use,  or  absolute  interdiction,  of 
coffee  and  tea,  as  well  as  of  all  alcoholics,  in  ordinary  diet. 


SUSTAINING   UNDER   BODILY   LABOR.     117 

the  same  strength,  with  greater  self-control.  He  is  ready 
to  stop  when  necessity  requires  that  he  should,  and  runs 
less  risk,  consequently,  of  injury  by  excessive  strain. 
He  does  not  expend  a  temporary  energy,  at  the  expense 
of  future  exhaustion.  He  does  not  avail  himself  of  a 
doubtful  and  deceitful  help,  at  the  cost  of  deterioration 
of  the  blood,  and  consequent  danger  to  health  and  life. 
He  does  his  work  at  least  as  copiously  and  as  well  as  the 
other,  even  for  a  time ;  and  in  long  continuance  of  labor, 
he  will  do  it  both  more  copiously  and  better.  He  ob- 
tains his  desired  end  in  all  respects  satisfactorily.  There 
is  no  lassitude,  headache,  feverishness,  foul  tongue,  or 
aching  limbs  next  day  —  even  after  the  hardest  labor. 
All  is  fresh,  and  supple,  and  free.  There  is  no  reaction.^ 
Has  alcohol  no  real  and  useful  power,  then,  in  rela- 
tion to  bodily  labor  ?  Yes ;  but  much  more  limited  than 
is  generally  supposed.  It  may  be  of  use  in  an  emer- 
gency— not  for  continuance.  If  an  honest,  willing  horse 
has  a  daily  round  of  work  to  do,  what  fits  him  for  it  is 
not  the  whip  or  the  spur,  but  corn  and  hay,  and  water, 
and  regular  rest.  But  if  at  any  time  a  special  efibrt  is 
to  be  made,  and  the  ordinary  means  do  not  seem  suffi- 
cient to  secure  it,  then  whip  and  spur  may  be  employed 
—  though  always  with  caution.  If  a  mighty  load  is  to 
be  stirred,  if  a  yawning  ditch  has  to  be  leaped,  if  the 
rising  tide  or  burning  prairie  be  pressing  behind  the 
rider,  he  may  well  use  both  heel  and  hand ;  even  should 

*  "  I  have  backed  as  many  as  60  tons  in  a  day,  with  perfect  ease," 
says  a  London  coal-whipper,  "since  I  took  the  pledge.  But,  hefore, 
I  should  scarcely  have  been  able  to  crawl  home ;  certain  to  have  lost 
the  next  day's  loorh." 


118  alcohol:   its   power. 

he  have  cause  to  fear  that  the  effort  which  saves  his  own 
life  may  be  fatal  to  the  faithful  steed  that  carries  him. 
As  a  man  spurs  his  horse,  so  may  he  spur  himself,  for 
the  accomplishment  of  some  special  end.  But  obviously 
that  end  ought  to  be  of  sufficient  importance  to  warrant 
such  a  means ;  and  the  spurring,  even  when  warrantable, 
must  be  conducted  with  prudence  and  caution.  Alcohol 
is  not  a  suitable  means  of  continuously  sustaining  man 
under  bodily  labor :  it  is  only  a  spur  for  a  spurt. 

VII.  The  power  of  alcohol  to  sustain  a  man  under 
mental  labor.  All  that  has  been  said  against  its  use  in 
bodily  labor  applies  here  ]  and  something  more.  What 
is  true  of  the  muscles  is  true  of  the  brain  —  the  mate- 
rial organ  with  the  co-operation  of  which  mental  work 
is  done.  In  labor  of  the  hand,  alcohol  stimulates  the 
brain  to  stimulate  the  muscle,  and  so  exhausts  both 
brain  and  muscle.  In  labor  of  the  head,  alcohol  sti- 
mulates the  brain  to  an  increase  of  function  under  men- 
tal power,  and  so  effects  a  concentrated  cerebral  exhaus- 
tion, without  being  able,  as  we  have  seen,  to  afford 
compensating  nutrition  or  repair.  On  the  contrary,  one 
effect  of  alcohol,  formerly  considered,  is  to  impair  the 
nutritive  qualities  of  the  blood;  and  the  brain,  conse- 
quently, comes  to  be  imperfectly  nourished.  The  in- 
creased tear  and  wear  meets  with  less  than  the  ordinary 
renovating  supply;  and  this  state  of  things,  long  con- 
tinued, may  produce  an  absolute  wasting  of  the  brain's 
substance. 

But  besides,  how  does  it  affect  the  mind  ?  Such  subtle 
influences,  of  course,  we  cannot  trace.     But  we  know 


SUSTAINING  UNDER  MENTAL  LABOR.  119 

full  well,  as  was  formerly  stated,  that  the  use  of  alcohol, 
while  in  moderate  doses  exciting,  quickening,  intensify- 
ing mental  action,  in  part,  yet  always  has  a  tendency  to 
diminish  voluntary  control,*  as  well  as  to  depress  the 
moral  nature,  and  clog  the  faculty  of  reason.  Is  that  a 
suitable  stimulus  for  the  student  ?  is  it  a  safe  stimulus 
for  the  man? 

There  is  the  same  common  fallacy  here,  of  course,  as 
in  the  case  of  manual  labor.  The  stimuhis  is  felt  to  do 
good.  "  I  could  not  work  my  work  without  it."  Per- 
haps. But  at  what  cost  are  you  working  your  work  ? 
Premature  and  permanent  exhaustion  of  the  muscles  is 
bad  enough;  but  premature  and  permanent  exhaustion 
of  brain  is  infinitely  worse.  And  when  you  come  to  a 
point  where  work  must  cease  or  the  stimulus  be  taken, 
do  not  hesitate  as  to  the  right  alternative.  Don't  call 
for  your  pale  ale,  your  brandy,  or  your  wine.  Shut  your 
book,  close  your  eyes,  and  go  to  sleep ;  or  change  your 
occupation,  so  as  to  give  a  thorough  shift  to  your  brain  ;f 
and  then,  after  a  time,  spent,  as  the  case  may  be,  either 
in  repose  or  recreation,  you  will  find  yourself  fit  to 
resume  your  former  task  of  thought  without  loss  or  de- 

*  It  is  lawful  to  learn  from  the  rogue  here.  Look  to  the  professed 
gambler.  His  victims  he  lures  on  to  wine  and  brandy,  but  himself 
tastes  never  a  drop.  While  he  would  have  their  power  of  mental 
control  asleep,  he  keeps  his  own  wide  n  wake,  with  his  "  head  cool." 

f  "  Rest  in  thought  is  procured  by  abstaining  from  all  voluntary 
effort  of  thinking,  or  by  changing  the  train  and  character  of  thought 
from  grave  to  gay,  from  what  is  severe  and  exhausting  to  what  is 
felt  to  be  light  and  exhilarating — just  as  muscles  are  often  relieved, 
not  by  absolute  cessation,  but  by  alteration  in  their  use."  —  Physio- 
logy  in  Harmony  with  the  Bible. 


120  alcohol:   its   power. 

triment.  Not  so  with  the  alcoholic  stimulus ;  the  result 
of  this  is  untoward  in  two  ways  —  corporeally,  exhaust- 
ing; intellectually  and  morally,  deteriorating. 

While,  then,  the  power  of  alcohol  in  sustaining  manual 
labor  is  limited  and  temporary,  its  power  in  reference  to 
, mental  labor  is  worse  than  nugatory;  it  is  noxious,  and 
not  warrantable,  even  for  a  time,  to  a  man  in  health. 

Look  to  the  mental  workers  under  alcohol.  Take  the 
best  of  them.  Would  not  their  genius  have  burned  not 
only  with  a  steadier  and  more  enduring  flame,  but  also 
with  a  less  sickly  and  noxious  vapor  to  the  moral  health 
of  all  around  them,  had  they  been  free  from  the  unnatu- 
ral and  unneeded  stimulus  ?  Take  Burns,  for  example. 
Alcohol  did  not  make  his  genius,  or  even  brighten  it. 
It  burnt  it  off  all  too  soon;  and  though  at  times  the 
flame  may  have  been  both  bright  and  pure,  and  the  fra- 
grance sweet  as  violets,  full  well  you  know  that  often 
the  light  was  lurid,  the  odor  naught. 

As  for  the  mere  intellectual  power,  try  a  simple  expe- 
riment on  yourself.  Swallow  a  draught  of  porter  or  ale 
—  a  pint  or  a  quart,  according  to  your  measure.  Then 
sit  you  down  to  the  solution  of  a  mathematical  problem, 
or  to  the  following  out  of  a  hard  logical  argument,  or  to 
the  detection  of  a  fine  metaphysical  subtlety.  How  sadly 
hampered  you  will  feel!  A  painful,  puzzled  attempt 
will  terminate,  not  in  satisfaction  or  success,  but  in  a 
mortified  conviction  that  you  have  foolishly  lubricated 
your  mental  machinery  with  something  else  than  oil; 
claggy  and  confounding. 

Or,  if  you  prefer  an  experiment  already  made,  by  one 
transcendently  qualified  for  the  task  —  take  the  evidence 


SUSTAINING  UNDER  MENTAL  LABOR.  121 

of  Hugh  Miller.  "The  workman,"  says  he,  in  his 
"  Schools  and  Schoolmasters/'  "  had  a  ^  founding  pint,' 
and  two  whole  glasses  of  the  whisky  came  to  my  share. 
A  full-grown  man  would  not  have  deemed  a  gill  of 
usquebaugh  an  overdose,  but  it  was  considerably  too 
much  for  me ;  and  when  the  party  broke  up,  and  I  got 
home  to  my  books,  I  found,  as  I  opened  the  pages  of  a 
favorite  author,  the  letters  dancing  before  my  eyes,  and 
that  I  could  no  longer  master  the  sense.  I  have  the 
volume  at  present  before  me  —  a  small  edition  of  the 
^  Essays  of  Bacon.'  .  .  .  The  condition  into  which 
I  had  brought  myself  was,  I  felt,  one  of  degradation.  I 
had  sunk,  by  my  own  act,  for  the  time,  to  a  lower  level 
of  intelligence  than  that  on  which  it  was  my  privilege 
to  be  placed ;  and,  though  the  state  could  have  been  no 
very  favorable  one  for  forming  a  resolution,  I  in  that 
hour  determined  that  I  should  never  again  sacrifice  my 
capacity  of  intellectual  enjoyment  to  a  drinking  usage; 
and,  with  God's  help,  I  was  enabled  to  hold  by  the 
determination." 

Or,  if  you  still  demur,  and  allege  that  this  is  the  tes- 
timony of  a  Scotch  and  stern  school,  take  that  racy 
Englishman  and  laughing  philosopher,  Sydney  Smith, 
who  writes  thus  to  Lady  Holland,  in  1828:  —  "Many 
thanks  for  your  kind  anxiety  respecting  my  health.  I 
not  only  was  never  better,  but  never  half  so  well;  indeed, 
I  find  I  have  been  very  ill  all  my  life  without  knowing 
it.  Let  me  state  some  of  the  goods  arising  from  abstain- 
ing from  all  fermented  liquors.  First,  sweet  sleep; 
having  never  known  what  sweet  sleep  was,  I  sleep  like  a 
baby  or  a  plough-boy.     If  I  wake,  no  needless  terrors,  no 


122  alcoijol:   its  power. 

black  visions  of  life,  but  pleasing  bopes  and  pleasing 
recollections :  Holland  House,  past  and  to  come !  If  I 
dream,  it  is  not  of  lions  and  tigers,  but  of  Easter  dues 
and  tithes.  Secondly,  I  can  take  longer  walks,  and 
make  greater  exertions,  without  fatigue.  My  understand- 
ing is  improved,  and  I  comprehend  political  economy. 
I  see  better  without  wine  and  spectacles  than  when  I 
used  both.  Only  one  evil  ensues  from  it :  I  am  in  such 
extravagant  spirits  that  I  must  lose  blood,  or  look  out  for 
some  one  who  will  bore  or  depress  me.  Pray  leave  off 
wine  :  —  the  stomach  is  quite  at  rest;  no  heart-burn,  no 
pain,  no  distention." 

Or  what  say  you  to  a  transatlantic?  the  late  Rev. 
Samuel  Miller,  D.  D.,  of  Princeton,  New  Jersey.  For 
sixteen  years  he  had  followed  the  advice  of  his  physi- 
cians, in  drinking  one  or  two  glasses  of  sound  wine 
daily.  "  During  all  this  time,"  says  he,  "  my  health  was 
delicate.  More  than  six  years  ago,  when  approaching 
my  sixtieth  year,  I  broke  off  at  once.  The  experiment 
had  not  proceeded  more  than  a  month,  before  I  became 
satisfied  that  my  abstinence  was  very  strikingly  beneficial. 
My  appetite  was  more  uniform,  my  digestion  improved, 
my  strength  increased,  my  sleep  more  comfortable,  and 
all  my  mental  exercises  more  clear ^  jpleasant,  and  suc- 
cessful'* 

The  wise  brain-worker,  when  thoroughly  fatigued,  will 
rest.  When  needful  of  a  stimulus  and  restorative,  as 
ofttimes  he  may  be,  ere  the  ordinary  or  available  time 
of  rest  has  come,  he  will  prefer  tea  or  coffee  to  alco- 
holics. The  former,  used  in  moderation,  have  no  remote 
evil  effect,  like   alcohol.     Unlike  it,  they  do  not  send 


SUSTAINING    UNDER    MENTAL    LABOR.     123 

blood  to  the  brain,  but  tend  rather  to  coax  blood  from 
it  — "  clearing  the  head/'  as  the  common  expression 
bears ;  they  stimulate  function,  at  the  same  time  causing 
no  unusual  tear  and  wear  of  structure,  but  rather  dimin- 
ishing what  would  otherwise  occur ;  the  whole  mind  is 
raised,  and  no  portion  of  it  depressed  or  deteriorated. 
We  can  appreciate  the  value  of  a  pinch  of  snuff,  when 
the  practice  is  not  habitual ;  that  is,  when  the  insufflation 
is  followed  by  sneezing,  and  blowing  of  the  nose,  and 
when  the  narcotic  effect  of  the  drug  is  not  manifested. 
But  it  really  puzzles  one  to  know  how  alcohol  can  benefit 
the  student.  Determining  blood  to  the  brain  in  unusual 
quantity,  and  that  blood  deteriorated  in  quality  so  as  to 
be  no  longer  well  fitted  for  healthy  stimulus  and  nutri- 
tion, but  calculated  rather  to  induce  stupor ;  the  brain 
stimulated  in  an  irregular  and  untoward  way — reason 
hampered,  if  not  perverted,  and  the  power  of  voluntary 
control  more  or  less  diminished ;  the  moral  sense  lowered, 
while  animal  passion  and  desire  are  roused ;  the  brain's 
actual  substance,  too,  undergoing  some  structural  change, 
not  for  the  better  —  how  can  this  state  of  things  favor 
any  form  of  sound  mental  labor? 

Genius  may  have  its  poetical  and  imaginative  powers 
stirred  up  into  fitful  paroxysms  by  alcohol,  no  doubt ; 
the  control  of  will  being  gone  or  going,  the  mind  is  left 
to  take  ideas  as  they  come,  and  they  may  come  brilliantly 
for  a  time.  But,  at  best,  the  man  is  but  a  revolving 
light.  At  one  time  a  flash  will  dazzle  you  —  at  another 
the  darkness  is  as  that  of  midnight;  the  alternating 
gloom  being  always  longer  than  the  period  of  light,  and 
all  the  more  intense  by  reason  of  the  other's  brightness. 


124  ALCOHOL:    ITS    POWER. 

"While  imagination  sparkles,  reason  is  depressed.  And, 
therefore,  let  the  true  student,  as  we  have  said,  eschew 
the  bottle's  deceitful  aid.  He  will  think  all  the  harder, 
all  the  clearer,  and  all  the  longer;  and  in  due  time,  he 
will  prove  that  the  designation  of  "water-drinker"  can 
carry  no  imputation  of  missiness  or  mediocrity.  Reason 
as  well  as  experience  warn  him  to  join  Samuel  Johnson 
in  his  cups  —  avoiding,  however,  intemperance  even  in 
these  —  rather  than  to  take  part  with  Byron  or  Burns 
in  their  bottles  and  bowls. 

But  I  may  be  told  —  "  You  are  too  sweeping  in  your 
remarks.  Are  there  not  many  able  students,  deep  and 
accurate  thinkers — good  and  godly  men  too — who  habit- 
ually take  a  moderate  alcoholic  stimulus,  and  think 
themselves  all  the  better  for  it  ?"  True.  But  in  these 
cases  the  dose  is  small,  and  kept  uniformly  so  —  a  thing 
that  not  every  one  can  do.  Besides,  the  tendency  in  the 
effects  of  even  a  small  dose  is  sinister,  as  has  been  stated ; 
and  well  though  they  have  done  with  the  alcohol,  they 
would  have  done  better  without  it.  The  feeling  of 
benefit  is  only  an  assumption ;  let  them  try  an  interrup- 
tion, and  they  will  find  that  they  have  been  leaning  on 
a  fallacy.  And,  moreover,  they  are  working  at  a  great 
cost;  the  alcohol  is  not  removing,  but  on\j  masking  their 
fatigue,  at  the  same  time  spun-ing  them  on  to  greater 
and  more  sustained  exertion.  A  horse,  suddenly  taken 
lame,  limps,  and  is  led  to  the  stable.  But,  if  he  has 
been  "  nerved,"  he  may  dash  the  diseased  foot  as  he  will 
upon  the  hard  streets — ^he  may  do  much  work,  and  seem 
sound  too  —  though  there  is  something  peculiar  and  un- 
natural in  his  way  of  going,  and  the  rider  at  all  times 


SUSTAINING  UNDER  MENTAL  LABOR.  125 

sits  insecurely ;  and  all  the  while  the  navicular  disease  is 
making  double  progress,  and  bringing  the  poor  animal 
to  the  tanyard  before  his  legitimate  time.  The  alcohol 
does  to  the  hard  student  what  "nerving"  does  to  the 
horse.  Let  both  keep  their  pain  and  fatigue  —  if  not 
unmitigated,  at  least  unmasked ;  for  these  are  Nature's 
wise  and  salutary  checks  against  excess  of  labor. 

Let  me  state  here  a  case  well  illustrating  the  drift  of 
my  argument.  A  friend  of  mine,  a  noble  workman,  of 
both  body  and  mind,  had  fallen  into  weak  health ;  and 
having  been  enjoined  the  use  of  wine,  as  a  needful  medi- 
cine, he  took  his  few  glasses  of  sherry  daily,  although 
professedly  an  abstainer.  In  course  of  time,  the  patient 
became  oblivious  of  one  important  principle  of  practice, 
formerly  alluded  to  (p.  60).  He  forgot  to  "  take  stock," 
from  time  to  time,  and  see  how  his  trade  was  flourishing. 
The  medicine  was  continued,  upon  chance,  for  years. 
I  ventured  occasionally  to  suggest  a  doubt  of  the  same 
necessity  for  stimulus  remaining  as  at  first.  But  I  made 
no  impression,  until  my  views  happened  to  receive  an 
important  backing  by  a  threatening  oi  gout.  My  friend, 
then  truly  disquieted  as  to  his  tactics,  resolved  to  change 
them  on  a  venture.  The  wine  was  wholly  given  up,  the 
gout  disappeared,  and  the  man  rose  like  a  giant.  He 
found  that  he  could  do  much  more  work  now  than  for- 
merly, with  much  less  fatigue ;  and  he  needed  to  be  re- 
strained, lest  by  excess  of  labor,  from  the  very  love  of  it, 
he  should  endanger  a  relapse.  One  alcoholic  result  — 
the  gout — did  good  service  here.  But  it  is  not  always, 
or  indeed  often,  that  so  alcohol  works  its  own  check 
and  cure. 


126  alcohol:   its  power. 

It  is  familiar  to  every  one,  that  in  the  present  day 
the  life  of  busy  man*  is  more  precarious  than  of  yore. 
We  hear  of  many  sudden  as  well  as  early  deaths.  We 
stop  a  little  to  shake  our  heads  sadly,  and  then  push  on 
into  the  crowd  again,  unheeding.  The  lesson  is  not 
learnt.  Yet  this,  I  feel,  very  sure,  ought  to  be  part  of 
the  lesson  taken  home  —  that  at  least  two  causes  are 
concerned  in  this  infraction  of  longevity :  men  are  mood- 
ily and  muddily  overworking  both  hand  and  head,  and 
they  know  not  that  they  do  so,  by  reason  of  a  general 
use  of  alcoholic  stimulants.  Deceived  by  these,  the  ex- 
cess of  work  is  both  undertaken  and  overtaken  —  after 
a  fashion  —  but  at  the  cost  of  a  terrible  increase  of  the 
tear  and  wear. 

Alcohol  to  the  working  human  frame  is  as  a  pin  to 
the  wick  of  an  oil-lamp.  With  this  you  raise  the  wick 
from  time  to  time,  and  each  raising  may  be  followed  by 
a  burst  of  brighter  flame ;  but,  while  you  give  neither 
cotton  nor  oil,  the  existing  supply  of  both  is,  through 
such  pin-work,  all  the  more  speedily  consumed. 

From  what  has  been  said,  it  necessarily  follows  that  a 
man  who  works  both  mind  and  body  much  must  not  only 
fail  to  benefit,  but  suffer  harm,  by  the  use  of  alcoholic 
stimulants.  We  need  not  repeat  the  reasoning.  And 
to  those  who  refuse  to  be  convinced  by  reason,  we  would 
simply  say — try  experience.  Make  trial  of  the  change 
—  from  the  alcoholic  to  the  simple  plan  of  working. 

*  I  mean  those  who  are  actively  engaged  in  business,  and  whose 
labor  is  specially  of  a  mental  kind :  working  under  the  high-pressure 
system  of  the  time. 


SUSTAINING  UNDER  MENTAL  LABOR.  127 

Not  limiting  the  time  of  probation  to  weeks  or  days, 
however,  as  is  generally  done.  You  must  give  time  to 
the  system  to  escape  from  the  slavery  of  habit.  Months 
are  needful  for  that;  and  then  you  may  expect  the  tests 
to  begin  to  tell.  Great  blundering  is  constantly  being 
committed  in  this  way.  A  man  has  been  for  years  — 
well-nigh  a  lifetime —  habituated  to  moderate  alcoholic 
stimulus,  and  he  says  :  "  Oh,  I'll  make  a  fair  trial  with- 
out it.  It's  all  one  to  me.  I'm  sure  I  shall  be  most 
happy  if  the  experiment  succeeds."  And  he  stops  his 
wonted  allowance  for  a  week,  or  a  fortnight,  or  a  month. 
At  the  end  of  that  time  he  comes  and  says :  "  I  knew 
what  would  happen.  Your  water  system  won't  answer 
with  me.  I  have  given  it  a  fair  trial,  you  see ;  but  I 
have  lost  flesh,  appetite,  and  strength.  I  am  uncomfort- 
able, too,  and  can't  get  through  my  work.  I  must  stick 
to  the  old  way."  He  thinks  he  has  given  your  way  an 
exceedingly  "fair  trial,"  and  he  looks  to  be  mightily 
commended  at  your  hands ;  yet  all  the  while  it  has  had 
no  trial  at  all.  He  never  entered  upon  the  road;  he 
stuck  half-way  in  the  avenue  leading  to  it.  He  found 
himself  in  the  modified  "  horrors"  of  abandoning  an  old 
alcoholic  habit;  and  by  an  error  of  reason,  rather  than 
of  intention,  he  hurried  back  instead  of  pressing  on  for 
.an  escape.  Back  to  what  ?  To  a  certain  slavery,  which 
even  in  its  lightest  and  best  form  is  both  irksome  and 
unsafe. 

Or,  again,  if  the  sceptic  refuse  to  experiment  upon 
himself,  let  him  take  the  evidence  of  those  who  have 
done  so,  and  who  must  be  taken  as  highly  competent 
evidence.    Richard  Cobden  has  gone  through  hard  work 


128  alcohol:  its  power. 

of  both  body  and  mind,  especially  as  an  agitator ;  and 
he  tells  us  frankly :  "  The  more  work  I  have  had  to  do, 
the  more  I  have  resorted  to  the  pump  and  the  teapot." 
Or  hear  Dr.  Carpenter's  Highland  minister  —  and  who 
works  harder  with  hand,  and  head,  and  heart,  than  the 
faithful,  zealous,  earnest  pastor  ?  his  labor  concentrating 
on  that  very  day,  too,  which  to  other  men  brings  rest. 
"  The  last  thing  which  he  had  relinquished,"  says  Dr. 
C,  "  was  his  tumbler  of  whisky-toddy  on  Sunday  even- 
ings, which  seemed  to  afford  him  a  great  refreshment 
after  the  fatigues  of  two  long  services,  into  which  he 
was  accustomed  to  throw  his  utmost  energy.  He  gave 
up  this  at  first  merely  as  an  experiment,  and  went  to 
bed  on  Sunday  nights  in  by  no  means  as  comfortable  a 
state  as  he  had  been  used  to  do;  but  he  soon  found  that 
he  rose  so  much  fresher  on  Monday  mornings,  and  was 
so  much  fitter  for  mental  and  bodily  exertion  on  that 
day,  that  he  continued  his  abstinent  practice  from  a  con- 
viction of  its  decided  benefit."  Or,  if  you  refuse  to  be 
convinced  by  a  Highlander  and  Presbyterian,  take  the 
equally  strong  evidence  of  a  Southron  churchman — the 
Yicar  of  Plymouth.  "  You  all  know  that  my  work  on 
the  Sabbath  day  is  very  hard,  and  I  used  to  think  that 
I  was  entitled  to  something  good  after  the  labors  of  the 
day,  and  generally  took  a  stiff  glass  of  brandy  and  water. 
I  did  this,  as  I  thought,  to  strengthen  me,  but  I  inva- 
riably passed  a  restless  night,  was  always  Mondayish, 
and  felt  unfit  for  anything ;  but  since  I  have  given  up 
the  brandy  and  water,  I  feel  as  well  on  Monday  morning 
as  I  did  on  Saturday  night." 

To  all  clergymen  we  would  respectfully  yet  earnestly 


SUSTAINING  UNDER  MENTAL  LABOR.  129 

Bay — Go  and  do  lihewUe  !  And  we  would  remind  them 
further,  that  they  are  professionally  liable  to  a  still  more 
insidious  temptation,  when  they  do  feel  "  Mondayish  on 
the  Monday."  Unable  for  wonted  work  with  wonted 
vigor  on  that  day,  they  may  then  specially  resort,  through 
a  kind  of  professional  instinct,  to  alcoholic  help,  and, 
rcith  that,  labor  on  as  on  other  working  days.  The  result 
is  in  two  points  of  view  injurious:  —  1.  They  may  be 
readily  drawn  thus  into  a  habit  of  dependence  —  to  an 
increasing  extent  —  on  a  support  which  is  both  danger- 
ous and  deceitful.  2.  They  break  the  just  and  natural 
order  of  things.  Monday  should  be  to  the  working  clergy- 
man his  day  of  physical  repose  and  recovery  —  his  Sab- 
bath, so  far  as  the  body  is  concerned.  It  is  natural  that 
he  should  feel  listless  and  disinclined  for  exertion  on 
that  day;  and  it  is  right  that  he  should  rest  accordingly. 
It  is  unnatural  to  oppose  that  sense  of  lassitude  by  tem- 
porary and  artificial  means ;  it  is  wrong  in  him  to  labor 
on  that  day,  except  at  the  call  of  "necessity  and  mercy;" 
and  it  is  doubly  wrong  in  his  people  to  ask  him  to  do 
otherwise.  His  wisdom  as  well  as  his  duty  is  —  to  be 
content  with  the  Mondayish  feeling  on  the  Monday,  and 
willingly  to  submit  to  its  exaction  of  repose  —  well  as- 
sured that,  after  simple  and  sweet  rest  during  that  day 
and  night,  Tuesday  will  come,  brighter  and  better,  in  its 
own  natural  way,  to  both  summon  and  support  him  in 
his  resumption  of  duty.  He  should  wait  for  this  day 
patiently  —  not  seek  to  conjure  it  some  ten  or  twenty 
hours  too  soon. 

In  one  word,  alcohol's  real  power  —  whether  as  to 
mind  or  muscle — is  well  illustrated  by  one  of  its  common 
9 


130  alcohol:   its  power. 

results  —  delirium  tremens:  excitement  with  weakness. 
Alcohol  has  power  to  excite,  but  not  to  strengthen  j  on 
the  contrary,  with  the  excitement,  sooner  or  later,  comes 
debility. 

VIII.  The  power  of  alcohol  in  relation  to  the  endurance 
of  cold.  —  The  common  belief  that  alcohol  has  great 
power  in  this  way  is  easily  understood.  Drink  a  glass 
of  spirits,  pure  or  diluted,  and  you  feel  the  stomach 
warmed ;  the  heart  and  pulse  beat  quicker  and  stronger, 
the  whole  frame  glows,  and  the  warmth  is  at  once  speedy, 
decided,  and  comfortable ;  while,  at  the  same  time,  the 
nervous  centre  is  quickened  to  a  more  vivid  perception 
of  the  comfort  so  induced.  ^^  Waiter !  bring  me  a  glass 
of  brandy;  for  I  am  chilly  and  cold."  So  reasons  and 
acts  the  common  man ;  and  as  he  glows  and  glistens  in 
the  fumes  of  his  hot  tumbler,  he  thinks  himself  a  most 
shrewd  practitioner. 

His  scientific  brother  can  explain  the  matter  more 
thoroughly.  He  looks  on  the  human  interior  as  a  mere 
laboratory;  and  on  the  functions  of  its  various  parts,  as 
on  the  action  of  mere  chemicals.  He  knows  that  alcohol 
is  a  grand  combustible ;  and  that,  when  taken  internally, 
its  forte  is  the  production  of  heat  by  ready  oxidation  in 
the  lungs.  What  so  suitable,  then,  to  raise  tempera- 
ture, when  temperature  is  low?  If  the  man  is  cold, 
and  wants  to  be  warm,  give  him  alcohol,  and  plenty  of 
it.  Heap  fuel  on  the  fire,  ply  the  poker,  and  blow  the 
bellows ! 

But  the  burning  of  coals  in  an  inanimate  grate  is  one 
thing;  and  the  burning  of  alcohol  in  living  lungs  is 


IN  RELATION   TO   ENDURANCE   OF   COLD.     131 

quite  another.  Man  is  not  a  mere  spirit-lamp.  Nay,  lie 
is  not  intended  to  be  a  spirit-lamp  at  all,  as  we  have 
seen — but  an  oil-lamp  ;  and  to  be  used  on  the  principle 
of  a  moderator.  Oil  in  the  food  is  the  special  lung- 
combustible  for  heating  the  frame,  designed  and  provided 
by  nature,  in  addition  to  the  burning  of  the  waste  mate- 
rial of  the  body;  and,  as  formerly  stated,  it  is  believed 
that  such  waste  is  converted  into  an  oleaginous  form  on 
purpose  to  undergo  such  change.  These  combustibles 
are  intended  to  be  burnt,  and  ought  to  be  burnt ;  if  not 
burnt,  harm  accrues  in  many  ways;  if  burnt,  they  are 
abundantly  sujficient  for  the  due  maintenance  of  tem- 
perature. Besides,  it  will  be  remembered  that  a  supply 
of  oxygen  is  needed  to  go  forward  with  the  blood,  and 
carry  on  the  heat-causing  changes  of  nutrition  and  decay 
of  tissue  (p.  19). 

Now,  if  alcohol  is  taken  in  quantity,  it  usurps  the 
place  of  such  combustibles.  For  a  time,  it  may  raise 
the  temperature  high  enough )  but  important  work  is 
left  undone,  noxious  matter  is  retained,  and  the  whole 
organism  suffers  in  consequence.  Alcohol,  in  short,  acts 
the  part  of  a  forward  volunteer :  doing  the  work  of  the 
regular  staff;  throwing  these  into  dangerous  idleness; 
not  doing  their  work  better  —  if  so  well ;  and  putting 
the  whole  arrangements  into  thorough  disorder.  Indeed, 
the  work  is  not  so  well  done.  Chemistry  will  quite  war- 
rant the  strongest  assertion  of  this.  For,  according  to 
Liebig,  the  comparative  power  of  these  matters  as  com- 
bustibles may  be  rated  thus :  Supposing  that  100  parts 
of  oil  are  required  to  produce  a  certain  result  by  its 
combustion,  the  attainment  of  the  same  result  by  starch 


132  alcohol:  its  power. 

will  require  240  parts ;  by  sugar,  249  parts ;  by  alcobol, 
266.  So  that,  although  alcohol  is  no  doubt  a  very  fair 
combustible  in  its  way,  yet  it  is  decidedly  inferior  to  all 
those  others  which  nature  obviously  prefers,  and  has 
taken  care  to  provide  in  ample  abundance.  That  it 
should  occupy  a  lower  grade  even  than  sugar  becomes 
intelligible  enough,  when  the  matter  is  regarded  in  a 
strictly  chemical  point  of  view;  seeing  that  it  is  not 
only  a  product  of  sugar^  but  also  a  degradation  of  that 
substance  hy  putrescence  —  altogether  a  very  "  inferior 
article." 

Suppose  a  daily  repast  provided  by  a  master  for  a 
certain  number  of  his  hired  servants.  There  is  enough 
for  all,  but  no  extravagant  excess.  He  expects  that, 
refreshed  by  their  feeding,  they  will  rise  and  do  their 
work  'y  the  doing  of  which,  and  the  doing  of  it  well,  is 
essential  to  the  safety  and  order  of  the  house  and  house- 
hold. But  an  unbidden  guest  steps  in ;  and  professing 
great  power  as  well  as  great  willingness  for  this  par- 
ticular work,  helps  himself  to  the  food,  first  and  fast, 
leaving  scarcely  a  mouthful  to  the  hungry  domestics. 
Unsatisfied  and  unrefreshed,  they  have  no  power  to  exe- 
cute the  task  that  now  awaits  them.  But  no  matter. 
He  is  both  satisfied  and  refreshed,  and  he  will  do  it  for 
them.  Accordingly  he  sets  to  work,  and  the  thing  is 
done — but  only  in  an  imperfect  and  inferior  way;  while 
the  servants,  by  reason  of  unwilling  and  unwonted  idle- 
ness, as  well  as  of  imperfect  and  insufficient  nourishment, 
are  permanently  deteriorated.  Would  the  master  of  the 
household  tolerate  the  presence  of  that  forward,  greedy, 
self-sufficient,  incompetent,  and  unprofitable  guest  ?    For 


IN   RELATION   TO   ENDURANCE   OF   COLD.     133 

once,  perhaps,  he  might.  But  surely  on  his  presenting 
himself  the  second  day,  it  would  be  well  to  show  him 
summarily  to  the  door.  "Ah,"  but  you  say,  "  the  illus- 
tration does  not  hold  good.  There  may  be  a  limit  to  the 
servant^s  food,  but  there  is  no  limit  to  the  supply  of 
oxygen  from  the  atmosphere."  Nay,  but  there  is.  The 
oxygen  in  the  air  is  indeed  inexhaustible;  but  the  amount 
of  it  which  human  beings  can  receive  from  the  air,  and 
convey  into  the  blood,  is  limited.  And  out  of  that  lim- 
ited supply  the  alcohol,  helping  itself  first  —  as  unwel- 
come, as  unnecessary — leaves  no  sufficiency  for  the 
needing  and  needful  consumers. 

Besides,  as  we  have  seen,  after  the  paroxysmal  activity 
of  alcohol,  there  invariably  comes  reaction ;  and  this  is  a 
serious  matter,  even  supposing  that  alcohol  did  do  its 
work  well  as  a  heating  agent.  The  effect  does  not  last. 
Depression  follows  the  excitement,  sooner  or  later.  It 
is  a  bad  sign  of  the  weather  when  the  barometer  is 
jumping  up  and  down.  Steadiness  is  the  great  thing  in 
the  weather-glass.  But  there  is  no  steadiness  in  the 
mercury  of  the  human  frame,  when  swayed  by  alcohol : 
it  rises  suddenly,  and  falls  just  as  soon ;  according  to  its 
rising  so  is  its  depression ;  and  each  successive  dip  goes 
lower  than  its  predecessor. 

Alcohol,  we  repeat,  is  but  a  poor  substitute  for  food, 
even  as  a  calorific.  Indeed,  volunteered  substitutes  are 
seldom  equal  to  the  regular  workman,  even  for  a  time, 
much  less  when  taken  into  constant  employ. 

Let  us  take  one  more  illustration.  There  is  a  fire- 
place, and  in  it  you  want  to  do  two  things.  You  wish 
to  consume  some  rubbish,  the  consumption  of  which  is 


134  alcohol:   its  power. 

essential  to  your  just  economy;  and,  by  its  burning,  you 
wish  to  maintain  due  heat  in  the  apartment.  For  this 
double  purpose  you  put  wood  and  other  kindling  mate- 
rial below  the  rubbish,  and  burn  it  steadily  away.  All 
goes  well :  the  rubbish  is  consumed,  the  heat  is  kept  up, 
the  grate  does  not  suffer,  and  the  atmosphere  is  kept 
pure  and  wholesome.  But  suppose  that  after  you  have 
nicely  adjusted  matters,  some  one  interferes,  and  placing 
some  very  inflammable  substance  on  the  top,  sets  fire  to 
that.  What  happens  ?  The  top  combustible  blazes,  the 
rubbish  smoulders  and  smokes;  for  a  time  the  apartment 
is  warm,  probably  to  excess ;  but  soon  the  blaze  grows 
low  and  dim,  and  when  the  upper  layer  of  substitute  has 
been  burnt  clean  away,  the  rubbish  is  left  black  and 
unconsumed ;  the  temperature  falls  low — too  low,  for  you 
feel  damp  and  chill ;  and  the  atmosphere  of  the  apart- 
ment, charged  with  dark  sulphurous  fumes,  grows  sti- 
fling and  oppressive.  Moreover,  when  you  have  occa- 
sion to  examine  the  grate,  you  will  probably  find  that 
the  top  blaze,  short  though  it  was,  has  proved  rather  too 
strong  for  it;  the  back  is  split,  and  the  ribs  are  begun 
to  be  eaten  through.  This  is  bad  enough,  even  for  once ; 
and  when  it  comes  to  be  repeated  day  by  day,  you  can 
readily  imagine  the  aggregate  result. 

So,  truly,  is  it  with  alcohol  as  a  combustible  accessory 
in  our  frames.  It  burns  brightly,  and  warms  us  for  a 
time ;  but  its  glow  soon  passes  off,  and  the  reaction  is 
very  cold;  the  waste  material,  as  well  as  the  combustible 
food  —  both  intended  by  nature  for  burning  —  are  left 
unconsumed ;  the  whole  frame  is  occupied,  as  it  were, 
with  an  atmosphere  of  disorder,  if  not  of  disease,  in 


IN  RELATION   TO   ENDURANCE   OF   COLD.    135 

consequence ;  and  the  stomach,  lungs,  liver,  and  other 
organs  in  which  the  treatment  of  the  alcohol  has  oc- 
curred, are  more  or  less  seriously  damaged  thereby.  Nay, 
they  are  certainly  ruined  in  the  long  run  —  and  that  at 
no  distant  date,  if  the  alcoholic  burning  be  on  a  large 
scale,  and  continued.  And,  moreover,  habitual  excess, 
as  we  have  seen  (p.  77),  may  ultimately  convert  the  en- 
tire man  into  a  slow  match,  which,  when  brought  into 
contact  with  an  accidental  spark,  burns  slowly  away, 
leaving  no  trace  save  an  offensive  oily  residuum. 

The  power  of  alcohol  as  a  means  of  enabling  us  to 
endure  a  diminished  temperature,  then,  is  very  limited. 
It  may  be  employed  now  and  then,  in  cases  of  extreme 
cold,  when  no  sufficient  food  or  other  natural  means  of 
heat  are  at  hand,  or  when  there  is  no  time  to  wait  for 
food's  leisurely  digestion — just  as  we  throw  a  piece  of 
cannel  coal  upon  the  low  fire,  to  brighten  it  up  again.  It 
sputters  and  sparkles  cheerfully  in  the  hearth;  but  when 
its  flame  is  over,  we  are  content — the  more  especially  as 
during  its  brief  blaze  it  has  cost  us  some  little  trouble 
to  pick  its  burning  sparks  from  off  the  carpet.  It  is 
neither  safe  nor  suitable  fuel  for  continuance.  And 
when  its  glow  goes  out,  the  room  feels  very  dark :  it  is 
time  to  go  to  bed. 

To  endure  cold,  let  us  be  well  and  warmly  clad,  so  as 
to  retain  the  heat  already  existing;  taking  good  and 
sufficient  exercise,  if  possible,  so  as  to  maintain  energetic 
circulation  of  the  blood;  avoiding  over-exertion  and 
fatigue,  which  necessarily  bring  failure  and  depression 
in  both  the  nervous  and  the  circulating  systems ;- taking 
sufficiency  of  food,  nutritious  and  calorific ;  and,  if  op- 


136  alcohol:   its   power. 

portunity  serve  and  require,  availing  ourselves  also  of  a 
due  proportion  of  the  Safe  and  simple  stimulants  —  tea 
or  coffee,  warm. 

As  examples  of  nutritious  food,  for  repair  of  tissue, 
say  beef,  or  mutton ;  of  calorific  food,  say  fat,  butter,  or 
oil  in  any  form.  According  to  Liebig  —  the  great  che- 
mical authority  to  whom  we  have  already  appealed  in 
this  matter — one  pound  of  fat  is  equal  to  three  pounds 
of  whisky  as  a  heat-generator ;  or,  to  put  it  in  a  money 
form,  one  shilling's  worth  of  oil  will  go  a«  far,  in  this 
way,  as  twelve  or  fifteen  shillings'  worth  of  brandy.* 
Give  me  a  good  hearty  meal  of  wholesome  mixed  food, 
with  bread  and  plenty  of  butter,  and  a  hot  cup  of  good 
coffee,  and  I  am  then  better  prepared  for  withstanding 
the  frost  and  snow,  than  your  wiseacre  who  uses  the 
alcoholic  warmer,  eats  sparingly,  and  boasts  of  his  small 
appetite.  Nay,  with  such  a  lining  I  am  better  equipped 
than  he  who,  to  a  cargo  in  all  respects  similar  to  mine, 
superadds  a  single  "  caulker." 

Nature  teaches  us  this.  Look  to  the  Laplander  and 
Russian.  Their  favorite  food  is  fat  and  oil.  And  Eu- 
ropeans speedily  get  accustomed  to  it,  too,  in  these  cli- 
mates. There  is  many  a  lad  in  Scotland  who  has  a 
stubborn  aversion  to  the  fat  of  meat;  he  pares  it  off, 
and  piles  it  on  his  plate,  let  his  thrifty  mother  say  what 
sbe  will.     But  send  him  as  a  cabin-boy  on  a  Greenland 

*  Even  if  the  respective  money  values  were  reversed,  the  oil  would 
be  the  better  bargain.  From  what  we  have  seen,  alcohol  was.  dear 
at  nothing ;  the  price  is  paid  afterwards,  in  many  a  successive  in- 
stalment, and  with  compound  interest  It  may  be  sweet  in  the 
mouth,  but  it  is  very  bitter  in  the  belly. 


IN   RELATION   TO   ENDURANCE   OF   COLD.    137 

voyage,  and  in  the  northern  latitudes  ho  will  speedily 
get  over  that  little  difficulty :  what  he  nauseated  at  home 
he  will  relish  there. 

Oil  or  fat,  we  have  seen  (p.  131),  is  the  best  calorific, 
chemically  considered ;  starch  and  sugar  the  next ;  al- 
coholics quite  in  the  shade.  How  scientific  man  by 
nature  is,  in  regard  to  the  two  first !  In  cold  climates, 
he  instinctively  prefers  fat  meats  and  oils^  in  warm 
climates,  he  eats  farinaceous  food;  in  temperate  cli- 
mates, he  ought  to  judiciously  combine  the  two  kinds 
of  diet.  The  Laplander  eats  his  lard  with  gusto ;  the 
Hindoo  his  rice ;  the  European  has  his  variety.  Who 
taught  any  of  them  to  take  to  the  lowest  and  worst  of 
the  calorifics  ?  Not  nature ;  but  vicious  custom.  Not 
a  friend,  but  "  an  enemy  hath  done  this."  And  they 
are  without  excuse.  For  while  nature  gives  an  instinct- 
ive relish  for  what  is  the  proper  calorific,  intelligent  ob- 
servation will  tell  what  ought  to  be  avoided.  Dr.  Car- 
penter, for  example,  mentions  the  interesting  testimony 
of  an  old  man  in  Dorsetshire,  who,  though  himself 
concerned  in  the  sale  of  spirits,  and  not  likely  to  decry 
them  unnecessarily  or  unjustly,  asserted,  in  regard  to  his 
employment  as  a  fowler,  "  that  although  the  use  of  ale 
or  brandy  might  seem  beneficial  in  causing  the  cold  to 
be  less  felt  at  first,  the  case  was  quite  reversed  when  the 
duration  of  the  exposure  was  prolonged ;  the  cold  being 
then  more  severely  felt,  the  larger  the  proportion  of  fer- 
mented liquors  taken.  And  he  further  stated,  that  all 
the  fowlers  of  his  acquaintance  who  had  been  accus- 
tomed to  employ  brandy  with  any  freedom,  while  out 
on  prolonged  expeditions,  had  died  early;  he  and  his 


138  alcohol:  its  powee. 

brother  (wlio  liad  practised  the  same  abstinence  as  him- 
self) having  outlived  nearly  all  of  their  contemporaries." 
We  are  also  told  that  the  Russian  authorities,  well  satis- 
fied of  the  banefulness  of  alcohol  as  a  calorific,  interdict 
its  use  absolutely  in  the  army,  when  troops  are  about  to 
move  during  extreme  cold ;  part  of  the  duty  of  the  cor- 
porals being  to  smell  carefully  the  breath  of  each  man 
on  the  morning  parade,  and  to  turn  back  from  the  march 
those  who  have  indulged  in  spirits ;  "  it  having  been 
found  that  such  men  are  peculiarly  subject  to  be  frost- 
bitten and  otherwise  injured."  And  once  more  to  quote 
from  Dr.  Carpenter :  "  The  Hudson's  Bay  Company  have 
for  many  years  entirely  excluded  spirits  from  the  fur 
countries  to  the  north,  over  which  they  have  exclusive 
control;  Ho  the  great  improvement,'  as  Sir  John  Richard- 
son states,  ^  of  the  health  and  morals  of  their  Canadian 
servants  and  of  the  Indian  tribes.' " 

The  latest  authority  on  this  subject  is  one  in  all  re- 
spects most  competent — Dr.  Rae,  of  the  Arctic  expedi- 
tion ;  and  his  testimony  is.  most  explicit,  that  the  efiect 
of  alcohol  during  extreme  cold  is  merely  to  purchase  a 
temporary  stimulus,  at  the  expense  of  subsequent  great 
prostration. 

IX.  The  poicer  of  alcohol  in  relation  to  the  endurance 
of  heat.  Its  friends  would  have  it  a  very  panacea :  good 
against  cold ;  good  against  heat. 

If  it  is  to  be  of  any  service  here  at  all,  it  cannot  be 
in  consequence  of,  but  notwithstanding,  its  virtues  as  a 
combustible  and  calorific.  It  must  have  some  other 
mode  of  acting,  sufficiently  strong  to  counteract  the 


IN   RELATION   TO   ENDURANCE   OP   HEAT.    139 

heat-gencrating  tendency.  And  that  can  only  be  by  its 
stimulant  properties ;  rousing  tbe  nervous  system  from 
tbat  state  of  depression  and  languor  which  so  commonly 
results  from  exposure  to  extreme  heat. 

Let  us  inquire  into  this  matter.  Can  it  be  that  alco- 
hol is  remedial  to  the  effects  of  heat  on  the  general  sys- 
tem, as  it  is  to  the  effects  of  heat  on  a  part  ?  We  all 
know  that  the  external  use  of  spirits  of  wine  is  an  ad- 
mirable remedy  for  a  scald  of  the  fingers — heat  to  cure 
heat.  At  first  the  pain  is  increased,  but  after  a  time  it 
deadens,  and  passes  away.  How  is  this  ?  Simply  be- 
cause at  first  the  alcohol  stimulated  the  part,  and  more 
especially  its  nerves ;  but  afterwards  its  sedative  effect 
took  place,  and  hence  the  sensation  of  relief.  And  as 
of  the  part,  so  of  the  system,  in  one  sense.  I  am  too 
hot,  and  I  take  alcoholics  to  "refresh"  me.  They  sti- 
mulate my  nervous  system  at  first,  and  for  a  time,  and 
so  give  temporary  relief  from  the  sensation  of  exhaus- 
tion. But  then  comes  with  certainty  the  reaction,  the 
depression,  the  languor  aggravated  and  augmented ;  and 
the  sedative  result  which  was  useful  in  the  scald  on  the 
part,  is  prejudicial  now  on  the  system.  The  only  escape 
from  the  otherwise  inevitable  evil  would  be,  to  take  the 
stimulus  in  continued  frequent  repetition,  as  in  fever,  or 
collapse  (p.  44) ;  truly  a  most  dangerous  line  of  practice, 
and  liable  to  a  terrible  consummation. 

But  further:  During  labor  with  exposure  to  great 
heat,  there  is,  on  the  one  hand,  much  disintegration  of 
tissue  constantly  going  on,  while,  on  the  other,  there 
being  small  need  for  combustion,  so  far  as  the  production 
of  heat  is  concerned,  but  little,  comparatively,  of  what 


140  alcohol:  its  power. 

ought  to  be  consumed  is  so  disposed  of.  The  conse- 
quence is,  that  the  combustible  part  of  the  food  and  the 
waste  material  of  the  blood  tend  to  accumulate  within 
the  system.  The  accumulation  of  the  latter,  among 
other  evils,  induces  a  feeling  of  prostration  and  lassitude; 
and  this  feeling  must,  of  course,  be  increased  by  what- 
ever tends  to  increase  such  accumulation.  Now,  that 
alcohol  acts  in  this  way  is  indisputable.  It  consumes 
itself,  taking  the  place  of  the  "waste,"  which  it  helps 
to  make ;  and  thus  must  ultimately  enhance  rather  than 
relieve  the  sensation  of  fatigue  as  well  as  its  actual 
amount. 

In  hot  exposures — natural  or  artificial — let  the  work- 
ing man  eat  sparingly,  especially  of  "the  fat  of  the 
earth ;"  and  let  him  eschew  alcohol  as  a  "  poison  of  the 
blood,"  which  it  really  is.  In  any  temperature  we  have 
seen  it  to  be  unsuitable  as  a  refreshing  beverage,  in  con- 
tinuance ;  in  a  high  temperature  it  is  specially  unsuit- 
able and  unsafe.  In  India  it  is  notorious  that  the  "  fast 
livers"  are  the  soonest  to  die.  Live  temperately,  and 
on  suitable  diet,  as  the  native  does,  and  you  will  bear 
the  climate  almost  as  well  as  he.  But  stuff  the  stomach 
with  animal  food  like  a  Laplander,  or  swim  it  in  alco- 
holics —  like  a  Scotchman,  shall  I  say  ?  —  and  then  you 
will  speedily  become  the  victim  of  disease.  Do  both,  and 
you  may  order  your  coffin  when  you  please. 

But,  says  some  one :  "  Look  how  the  man  sweats ! 
That  loss  must  exhaust  him,  unless  made  up.  Surely 
beer,  porter,  spirits  and  water,  are  good  for  that  ?"  Not 
at  all.  The  sweat  is  but  water,  and  let  the  leakage  be 
supplied  by  water.     As  one  function  of  the  lungs  is  to 


IN   RELATION   TO   ENDURANCE   OP   HEAT.    141 

generate  heat  by  intra-combustion,  so  one  function  of 
the  skin  is  to  moderate  heat  by  moisture  and  evaporation 
on  its  surface  —  sweating.  Now  "  evaporating  lotions," 
made  by  alcoholics,  are  found  to  be  very  cooling  and 
pleasant  for  external  use ;  but  when  the  cooling  agent 
has  to  be  filtered  from  within,  a  more  suitable  material 
is  required  —  and  that  is  water.  Men  find  this  out  for 
themselves,  untaught  —  save  by  experience.  A  black- 
smith at  his  forge,  a  fireman  at  his  engine,  a  glass-blower 
at  his  furnace,  is  drinking  largely  as  he  sweats  profusely; 
but  he  is  not  taking  alcoholics.  Perhaps  he  is  "a 
drinker,"  and  cannot  do  without  them  altogether.  But 
he  reserves  his  dose  as  a  bonne  houche,  till  after  he  has 
got  home;  his  work  and  sweating  over  for  the  day. 
During  his  sweating  he  swallows  water,  ginger-beer, 
lemonade,  or  some  such  simple  drink — it  may  be  almost 
in  bucketfuls ;  finding  that  these  are  suflScient,  not  only 
to  meet  the  wants  of  his  system,  but  to  meet  them  more 
thoroughly  and  suitably  than  alcoholics  would  do. 

"  But  did  you  not  say  that  water,  taken  beyond  the 
demands  of  thirst,  tends  to  accelerate  the  change  of 
tissue  (p.  63)  ?  and  will  not  such  draughts  consequently 
exhaust  the  man,  instead  of  refreshing  him?"  No. 
His  state  is  peculiar.  His  thirst  is  great,  and  there  is 
tolerance  of  the  remedy.  It  will  not  be  easy  to  exceed 
either.  And  if  he  did,  his  stomach  and  digestion  will 
be  left  so  free  and  unfettered  as  readily  to  make  up  the 
loss  again,  by  good  digestion  waiting  upon  wholesome 
appetite. 

The  unsuitableness  of  alcoholics  in  hot  climates  is 
borne  ample  testimony  to  by  those  most  competent  to 


142  alcohol:  its  power. 

judge.  No  one  will  suspect  the  gallant  Rajah  of  Sara- 
wak of  being  a  "  milksop,"  in  the  ordinary  acceptation 
of  the  word.  Yet  he  tells  us  that  he  is  perfectly  satis- 
fied of  the  necessity  of  abstinence  in  those  who  would 
successfully  bear  up  against  the  danger  and  fatigue  of 
such  climates  as  that  of  Borneo.  Dr.  Jackson,  too,  a 
great  authority  in  all  matters  connected  with  the  hygiene 
of  armies,  has  left  his  record  thus  :  —  "  Personal  expe- 
rience has  taught  me  that  the  use  of  ardent  spirits  is  not 
necessary  to  enable  an  European  to  undergo  the  fatigue 
of  marching  in  a  climate  whose  mean  temperature  is 
between  73°  and  80°,  as  I  have  often  marched  on  foot, 
and  been  employed  in  the  operations  of  the  field  with 
troops  in  such  a  climate,  without  any  other  beverage 
than  water  and  coffee."  (On  one  occasion  he  marched 
118  miles  in  four  days,  in  Jamaica,  carrying  weight 
equal  to  that  of  a  soldier's  knapsack).  "  So  far  from 
their  being  calculated  to  assist  the  human  body  in  en- 
during fatigue,  I  have  always  found  that  the  strongest 
liquors  were  the  most  enervating  -,  and  this  m  ivhatever 
quantity  iliey  were  consumed."  "  My  first  voyage  was  to 
Jamaica,"  says  Sir  John  Ross,  R.  N.,  "where  the  captain 
and  several  of  the  crew  died.  Excepting  that  I  never 
drank  any  spirits,  I  took  no  care  of  myself.  I  exposed 
myself  to  the  burning  sun,  slept  on  deck  in  the  dew, 
and  ate  fruit,  without  feeling  any  bad  efiects.  I  never 
tasted  spirits  ;  and  to  this  alone  do  I  attribute  the  extra- 
ordinary good  health  I  enjoyed."  Lately,  I  had  the 
advantage  of  conversing  on  this  subject  with  the  veteran 
Governor  of  Gambia;  and  it  gives  me  much  pleasure  to 
adduce  here  his  important  testimony  to  the  same  efiect. 


IN   RELATION   TO   ENDURANCE   OP   HEAT.    143 

iTaving  passed  nearly  twenty-seven  years  of  his  life  in 
foreign  service,  "  within  the  tropics,  and  frequently  in 
the  most  unhealthy  stations,"  he  attributes  the  preserva- 
tion of  his  life  and  health,  under  God,  mainly  to  this, 
that  from  the  first  he  eschewed  alcoholics  and  tobacco. 
A  very  large  proportion  of  his  comrades  he  has  laid  in 
the  grave ;  and  he  accounts  for  their  predecease,  not  by 
any  diflference  in  their  constitution  or  service,  but  solely 
by  the  difference  in  their  regimen.  At  first  he  tried 
both  ways  of  it ;  and  on  that  account  his  evidence  is  all 
the  more  valuable.  "  In  many  arduous,  extensive,  and 
severe  expeditions,  I  used  solely  tea  as  my  beverage : 
and  I  always  felt  free  from  fever  and  thirst,  well  sus- 
tained, up  to  any  work  (even  with  the  mercury  120°  in 
the  shade),  and  hard  as  a  flint.  But,  on  the  contrary, 
when  I  used  the  usual  *  liquids  imbibed  by  travellers 
in  the  tropics  —  brandy,  or  rum  and  water,  pale  ale, 
Barclay's  XXX  —  I  was  invariably  heated  and  thirsty, 
muscles  relaxed,  nerves  irritable,  temper  ditto ;  and  what 
on  other  occasions  constituted  pleasing  exertion,  became 
more  or  less  labor.  Pluck,  rivalry,  or  resolution,  like 
the  raven  of  Barnaby  Budge,  '  never  to  say  die,'  kept 
me  up  to  the  traces  with  an  extra  waste  by  tear  and  wear 
of  the  constitution.  Besides,  the  dose  of  alcohol  once 
freely  used,  must  be  frequently  repeated,  and  increased 
in  strength,  else  it  loses,  and  that  rapidly,  its  falsely 
stimulating  qualities.  I  have  known  an  officer  not 
thirty — nay,  twenty-five  years  old  —  commence  with  one 


* 'Strange,  what  a  binding,  blinding  hold  custom  takes  of  rational 
men!    "Usual!"    That  is  the  evil. 


144  alcohol:  its  power. 

glass  of  brandy  and  water  in  the  morning,  and  at  last 
require  one  bottle  (or  rather  consume  it)  of  the  pwre 
spirit,  before  noon."  He  then  proceeds  to  an  "  unquali- 
fied assertion  that  tea  in  all  tropical  countries,  and  under 
all  circumstances,  is  not  only  more  safe  and  sanitary,  but 
infinitely  more  sustaining  than  any  other  liquid."  "  I 
have  served  or  lived  in  all  the  "West  India  colonies,  and 
been  in  Africa  too,  and  I  never  knew  a  dram-drinker,  a 
soaker,  a  'jolly  trump' — be  he  of  the  military,  medical, 
legal,  commercial,  or  any  other  profession  —  long-lived, 
healthy,  or  always  equal  to  the  duties  he  was  paid  for 
and  called  upon  to  perform" 

With  one  more  quotation  from  the  gallant  Colonel,  I 
shall  be  satisfied ;  bearing  upon  what  may  be  considered 
a  necessary  deduction  from  what  we  have  already  con- 
sidered— viz.,  that  alcohol  is  equally  ineficctual  in  sud- 
den alternations  of  temperature,  as  in  the  extremes  of 
either  heat  or  cold.  "  In  1846,"  says  he,  "  I  joined  a 
party  that  made  the  ascent  of  the  Blue  Mountain  Peak, 
Jamaica — an  elevation  of  8000  feet  above  the  level  of 
the  sea.  After  riding  thirty  miles,  we  commenced 
climbing  up  the  last  2000  feet,  and  accomplished  the 
task  in  three  hours,  forty  minutes.  There  was  no  path 
or  track  sufficient  to  steady  a  goat ;  we  had  to  hold  on 
by  the  trunks,  branches,  and  roots  of  trees  and  plants, 
climbing  up  hand  over  hand,  without  relaxing  our  exer- 
tions until  we  reached  the  sunmiit.  I  indulged  in  cold 
tea;  my  friends,  in  libations  of  champagne,  pale  ale, 
porter,  or  brandy  and  water;  and  the  result  was,  that 
the  more  they  drank,  the  more  thirsty  they  were.  When 
we  gained  the  peak,  some  reached  it  unable  to  enjoy  the 


IN   RELATION   TO   ENDURANCE   OF   HEAT.    145 

romantic  view;  others  flung  themselves  on  the  ground 
exhausted,  declaring  that  if  they  were  caught  again 
ascending,  why  —  no  matter  what.  We  remained  the 
night,  which  proved  bitterly  cold ;  the  mercury  faUing 
from  95°  to  freezing-point.  I  still  continued  constant  to 
the  China  leaf;  and  next  day  made  the  descent  fresher 
and  more  vigorous  than  any  of  the  party,  although  I  did 
lose  what  I  could  ill  spare  from  my  thin  carcase — three 
pounds  in  twenty^four  hours." 

Such  testimony  is  surely  conclusive.  Yet  I  cannot 
forego  the  opportunity  of  adducing  the  authority  of  two 
other  names  —  perhaps  the  most  popular  of  the  day. 
Livingstone,  in  all  his  African  wanderings,  has  been  a 
water  drinker,  on  principle.  In  his  last  and  greatest 
journey,  he  started  with  one  bottle  of  brandy,  as  a  medi- 
cine ;  but  it  was  accidentally  broken  to  pieces  within  the 
first  few  days ;  and  its  loss,  even  as  physic,  was  not  felt. 
The  gallant,  glorious  Havelock  was  a  water  drinker,  too. 
In  his  arduous  campaigning,  he  knew  the  value  of  grog, 
sparingly  and  judiciously  employed  so  as  to  help  men  to 
great  exertions,  on  an  emergency,  when  neither  food  nor 
rest  can  be  obtained  (p.  117).  But  on  general  principles 
he  set  his  face  against  alcoholics  in  the  army,  and  espe- 
cially in  India — satisfied  of  their  deeply  injurious  influ- 
ence on  both  the  mind  and  body  of  the  soldier.  In  his 
"Narrative  of  the  War  in  Afighanistan,"  he  tells  us 
"  that  though  Ghuznee  was  carried  by  storm,  after  a  re- 
sistance stout  enough  to  have  roused  the  angry  passions 
of  the  assailants,  the  Afighans  were  everywhere  spared 
when  they  ceased  to  fight;  and  it  is  in  itself  a  moral 
triumph  exceeding  in  value  and  duration  the  praise  of 
10 


146  alcohol:    its   power. 

the  martial  achievement  of  the  troops,  that  in  a  fortress 
captured  by  assault,  not  the  slightest  insult  was  offered 
to  one  of  the  females  found  in  the  Zunanu  within  the 
walls  of  the  citadel.  This  forbearance,  and  those  sub- 
stantive proofs  of  excellent  discipline,  reflect  more  cre- 
dit on  officers  and  men,  than  the  indisputable  skill  and 
valor  displayed  in  the  operation.  But  let  me  not  be 
accused  of  foisting  in  unfairly  a  favorite  topic,  or  at- 
tempting to  detract  from  the  merit  of  the  troops,  when 
I  remark  in  how  great  a  degree  the  self-denial,  mercy, 
and  generosity  of  the  hour,  may  be  attributed  to  the 
fact  of  the  European  soldier  having  no  spirit-ration  since 
the  8th  of  July,  and  having  found  no  intoxicating  liquor 
amongst  the  plunder  of  Ghuznee.  No  candid  man  of 
any  military  experience  will  deny  that  the  character  of 
the  scene  in  the  fortress  or  citadel  would  have  been  far 
different  if  individual  soldiers  had  entered  the  town 
primed  with  arrack,  or  if  spirituous  liquors  had  been 
discovered  in  the  Affghan  depots.  Since,  then,  it  has 
been  proved  that  the  troops  can  make  forced  marches 
of  forty  miles,  and  storm  a  fortress  in  twenty-five  minutes, 
without  the  aid  of  rum,  behaving,  after  success,  with  a 
forbearance  and  humanity  unparalleled  in  history,  let  it 
not  henceforth  be  argued  that  distilled  spirits  are  an  in- 
dispensable portion  of  a  soldier's  ration.^' 

X.  The  power  of  dlcoJiol  to  avert  disease.  Whatever 
lowers  the  condition  of  health,  invites  and  favors  the 
invasion  of  disease.  And  there  is  no  more  common 
cause  of  such  depression,  than  the  accumulation  of  waste 
material  within  the  system.     Indeed,  this  is  not  seldom 


IN    AVERTING    DISEASE.  147 

itself  a  cause  of  disease  of  the  most  serious  kind — ^fever, 
for  example.  Now  alcohol,  if  it  do  not  produce,  must 
necessarily  aggravate  this  condition  j  and,  therefore,  we 
cannot  see  how,  when  taken  as  a  means  of  preventing 
disease,  it  can  have  any  other  effect  than  simply  to  favor 
its  occurrence.  Such  is  the  voice  of  experience,  espe- 
cially in  hot  climates,  as  can  be  readily  understood. 
Even  in  this  country,  we  have  not  far  to  go  for  facts. 
In  hospitals,  it  is  not  the  abstinent  but  the  alcoholic 
nurses  and  attendants  that  are  struck  down  by  conta- 
gion. And  when  cholera  is  scourging  the  land,  you 
may  predicate  as  well  as  trace  its  progress,  by  reference 
to  the  sober  or  drunken  habits  of  the  people.  In  that 
hamlet,  or  household,  who  is  the  first  victim?  The 
drunkard.  In  that  district,  which  is  the  spot  most 
plague-stricken?  That  in  which  whisky  is  known  to 
be  most  largely  consumed. 

Of  70  male  adults  affected  with  cholera  in  an  Edin- 
burgh hospital,  in  1848,  only  17,  even  according  to 
their  own  account,  had  led  tolerahly  temperate  lives. 
And  of  140  females  attacked  by  the  disease,  only  43 
were  reputed  sober. 

Moreover,  besides  rendering  the  patient  more  liable 
to  the  attack,  it  reduces  his  power  of  enduring  it  when 
it  comes.  As  to  fever,  for  example.  Dr.  .Davidson  has 
recorded  a  very  significant  fact  —  viz.,  that  out  of  370 
cases,  the  death  among  the  intemperate  amounted  to 
one-third  of  the  whole ;  among  the  temperate  only  to 
one-seventh.  And  Dr.  Craigie  states  that  out  of  thirty- 
one  deaths  from  fever,  in  his  hospital-wards,  only  two 
occurred  in  temperate  persons. 


148  alcohol:   its   power. 

Alcohol  has  no  power  of  acting  as  a  preservative 
against  disease;  nor  can  it  even  prevent  decay — till  we 
are  dead.  But  people  have  been  somehow  led,  very 
generally,  into  an  opposite  belief,  and  —  what  is  worse 
— they  resolutely  act  upon  it.  Here,  possibly,  is  a  way 
by  which  the  error  has  crept  in.  In  the  morning  we 
are,  in  one  sense,  weak ;  refreshed  by  rest  and  sleep,  no 
doubt ;  but  with  an  empty  treasury,  so  far  as  nourish- 
ment is  concerned.  The  stomach  contains  no  food,  and 
probably  the  last  portion  of  chyle  has  passed  up  from 
the  bowels.  For  some  hours,  perhaps,  the  blood  has 
ceased  to  be  fed,  and  the  circulation  is  consequently 
weak;  moreover,  much  of  the  combustible  portion  of 
the  food  has  been  burnt  off,  and  the  temperature  in 
consequence  is  apt  to  fall  low.  To  face  exertion  and 
fatigue  in  such  a  case  were  not  wise ;  and  specially  im- 
prudent would  it  be  at  the  same  time  to  encounter  the 
chance  of  communicated  disease — whether  by  infection, 
malaria,  or  otherwise.  The  natural  and  proper  mode  of 
meeting  the  difficulty  would  be,  to  breakfast  forthwith. 
This  is  the  right  thing  to  do.  But  perhaps  it  is  not 
convenient;  or  custom  has  arranged  it  otherwise.  The 
laborer  has  to  do  his  morning's  "  moil ''  of  work ;  the 
student  has  to  execute  his  early  task ;  the  physician  has 
to  go  his  watchful  round  —  and  then  to  breakfast  "with 
what  appetite  he  may."  But  can  nothing  be  done  in 
the  meanwhile?  Is  there  no  stop-gap?  A  crust  of 
bread,  a  cupful  of  milk,  or  tea,  or  coffee,  would  answer 
well.  But  somehow  that  black  bottle  is  always  at  hand, 
pushing  itself  forward  as  a  substitute;  and  perhaps  it 
has  got  some  chamomile  heads,  or  other  herbs  in  it,  to 


IN    AVERTING    DISEASE.  149 

qualify  it  by  the  name  of  "  bitters."  A  glass  of  that  is 
taken ;  the  man  feels  comforted  by  it ;  his  ideas  of  "  the 
congruity  of  things,"  too,  are  satisfied;  and  forth  he 
sallies,  protected  at  all  hands,  as  he  thinks,  against 
every  bodily  calamity.  Now,  we  do  not  assert  that  this 
"substitute"  is  in  every  case  noxious.  In  an  emer- 
gency, and  when  nothing  else  is  to  be  had,  it  may  be 
better  than  nothing.  But  when  the  right  thing  itself 
can  be  procured,  the  substitute  must  ever  be  inferior ; 
and  the  inferiority  is  special  in  this  case,  seeing  that  the 
substitute,  by  continuance,  will  prove  not  only  noxious 
in  other  respects,  but  also  diametrically  opposed  to  the 
very  object  which  we  use  it  to  obtain.  The  right  thing 
is  breakfast — food,  not  physic.  The  wise  man  takes  his 
first  regular  meal,  when  it  can  be  had,  almost  immediately 
after  his  toilet.  The  next  best  thing — breakfast  being 
necessarily  delayed  —  is  the  portion  of  food  such  as  we 
have  already  named.* 

Attention  to  this  simple  matter,  I  am  persuaded,  will 
save  oftentimes  from  ordinary  disease ;  and,  moreover, 
will  tend  greatly  to  preserve  men  from  the  worst,  and, 
alas,  the  most  common,  of  all  diseases  —  intemperance. 
"  C'est  le  premier  pas  qui  coute."  It  is  this  villanous 
alcoholic  "morning"  that  is  the  first  fatal  step  to  many 
in  their  downward  course  of  drunkenness.     And  here  I 


*  Europeans  in  India  have  been  taught  by  experience  the  wisdom 
of  such  arrangement.  Awaking  at  daylight,  languid  and  weary, 
after  probably  a  restless  night,  they  have  their  chota-haaaaree,  or 
small  breakfast.  Thus  revived,  they  drive  or  walk  out,  employ  them- 
selves in  household  affairs,  or  transact  business ;  and  then,  about  nine 
o'clock,  assemble  to  the  regular  morning  meal. 


150  alcohol:  its  power. 

would  earnestly  urge  on  all  husbands,  and  especially  on 
all  wives,  a  simple  domestic  arrangement.  The  working- 
man,  as  he  creeps  out  of  his  home,  morning  by  morning, 
in  cold  winter,  is  perhaps  shivery,  dull,  dispirited  3  un- 
comfortable, unwashed,  unrubbed,  he  has  huddled  on  his 
clothes,  half  consciously.  His  stomach  is  empty,  and 
his  energy  is  low.  As  he  trudges  along,  a  want  is  plainly 
felt  within ;  and  the  feeling  of  it  becomes  all  the  more 
palpable  and  painful,  when  passing  that  lurid  light  of 
the  early  publican.*  His  case  has  been  considered  for 
him;  the  'licensed  victualler"  has  most  thoughtfully 
provided  a  "  substitute  "  for  his  food ;  and  the  poor  man, 
by  a  kind  of  helpless  instinct,  trundles  down  the  steps, 
and  drinks  his  accustomed  "  morning  " —  as  a  silly  moth 
circles  in  the  flame,  little  dreaming  that  he  is  to  be  so 
cruelly  scorched  thereby.  This  is  the  beginning;  we 
need  not  here  tell  the  middle  and  the  end.  Well,  to 
prevent  all  this,  let  a  little  coffee  be  made  over  night, 
and  set  past  with  a  bit  of  bread  and  butter,  and,  if  the 
finances  will  afford  it,  an  egg.  In  the  morning  —  how- 
ever early — the  gas  is  lit;  and  on  it  is  a  simple  tin 
arrangement  for  heating  the  coffee.  By  the  time  the 
man  is  washed  f  and  dressed,  the  coffee  is  hot.  Then 
let  him  swallow  his  egg  raw,  eat  his  bread  and  butter,J; 

*  It's  the  early  bird  that  catches  the  early  worm,"  said  a  sage 
monitor  to  a  little  man  who  had  overslept  himself.  "Yes,"  quaintly 
replied  the  yawning  boy,  "  and  what  a  fool  was  the  worm  to  be  up, 
so  as  to  be  in  his  way !"  How  painfully  applicable  is  this  well-known 
bit  of  humor  to  the  case  in  question  !  The  early  worm  in  this  case> 
so  easily  and  opportunely  caught,  is  indeed  a  fool. 

f  Washing  is  quite  essential — and  it  implies  rubbing.  Vide  "Labor 
Lightened,  not  Lost." 

I  In  winter,  the  butter  should  be  tolerably  thick. 


TO    PRODUCE    DISEASE.  151 

and  drink  his  coffee.  This  is  a  good  small  breakfast ;  it 
will  keep  him  warm  and  comfortable;  he  will  feel  no 
want  of  the  morning  dram ;  he  will  be  able  to  snap  his 
fingers  at  his  considerate  friend,  the  publican ;  and  after 
some  hours  of  hard  work,  he  will  return  to  a  comfortable 
meal,  both  less  fatigued  and  less  prone  to  disease  than 
he  otherwise  would  be.  This  is  the  optimism  of  the 
thing.  But  if  we  cannot  get  all,  let  us  have  at  least  an 
instalment.  If  there  be  no  egg,  let  us  have  the  bread, 
butter,  and  coffee;  if  no  butter,  let  us  have  the  rest; 
if  neither  butter  nor  bread,  let  us  still  have  the  coffee ; 
and,  alone  though  it  be,  it  is  worth  a  thousand  of  the 
alcoholic  "mornings."  There  is  no  excuse  for  with- 
holding this  simple  arrangement.  The  wife  need  not 
bestir  herself  at  all  in  the  morning — unless  she  choose;* 
the  gas  must  be  lit  at  all  events;  the  little  heating 
apparatus  may  be  had  for  a  few  pence,  and,  once  there, 
it  will  last  a  lifetime ;  while  the  expense  of  the  coffee 
is  not  greater,  if  so  great,  as  that  of  the  noxious  "  sub- 
stitute." 

XI.  The  power  of  alcoJiol  to  produce  disease. — With 
less  than  no  power  to  avert  disease,  though  with  con- 
siderable power,  when  given  medicinally,  in  suitable 
circumstances,  to  modify  and  restrain  it,  the  power  of 
ajcohol  to  produce  disease,  when  taken  unnecessarily 
and  in  excess,  is  all  but  incalculable.     Who  has  not 

*  Nay,  there  is  no  need  for  a  wife  at  all,  for  the  matter  of  that.  A 
bachelor  can  carry  through  the  whole  transaction  by  himself  quite 
well.  Only  a  wife  does  it  more  handily ;  and  a  very  good  wife,  so 
far  from  grudging  the  trouble,  will  take  a  pride  in  "  this  labor  of 
love." 


152  alcohol:   its  power. 

stood  amazed  at  the  impudence  of  the  quack,  who  un- 
blushingly  advertises  his  nostrum,  warranting  it  to  cure 
all,  or  nearly  all,  the  diseases  that  flesh  is  heir  to? 
Alcohol  were  no  quack  were  it  to  claim  an  equal  power ; 
not,  indeed,  in  the  way  of  cure,  but  in  the  way  of  pro- 
duction. "  Methinks  it  doth  protest  too  much  V  "  Nay 
— but  it  will  keep  its  word,"  Diseases  of  the  brain,  of 
the  lungs,  of  the  heart  and  arteries,  of  the  stomach  and 
bowels,  of  the  liver,  of  the  kidneys,  of  the  skin ;  gout 
and  rheumatisms;  dropsies;  palsies;  scrofula;  premature 
decay;  general  poisoning;  delirium,  epilepsy,  fatuity, 
madness — these  are  but  a  part  of  the  long  black  list  that 
might  in  sad  and  sober  truth  be  enumerated,  as  more  or 
less  directly  caused  by  alcohol. 

This  is  neither  the  time  nor  the  place  for  entering 
upon  detail  in  regard  to  this.  We  assert  the  fact,  and 
defy  its  contradiction  :  —  There  is  no  one  cause  of  dis- 
ease, in  this  country,  one-half  so  prolific  as  alcohol.  And 
Pandora,  as  she  numbers  and  estimates  the  numerous 
progeny  of  her  box,  may  well  fondle  this  one  especially 
— "  Many  daughters  have  done  virtuously,  but  thou  ex- 
cellest  them  all." 

And  the  worst  of  it  is,  that  the  disease  so  induced 
does  not  terminate  with  the  life  of  him  or  her  who  pro- 
duced it.  If,  unhappily,  children  be  born,  they  will 
inherit  the  evil  of  their  progenitors :  stunted  in  body, 
and  often  in  mind ;  *  fatuous,  or  foolish ;  drink-loving, 

*  According  to  Dr.  Howe,  in  his  report  on  idiocy  to  the  Legislature 
of  Massachusetts — "The  habits  of  the  parents  of  300  of  the  idiots 
were  learned;  and  IAS,  or  nearly  one-half ,  are  reported  as  'known 
to  be  habitual  drunkards.' " 


IN    CHERISHING    OLD    AGE.  153 

and  drunken,  in  their  turn ;  scrofulous,  rheumatic,  con- 
sumptive, weak,  useless.  This  is  one  of  the  punishments 
of  sin  in  the  present  life,  which  may  in  sad  bitterness 
be  traced  downward  from  parent  to  child — "iniquity 
of  the  fathers  visited  upon  the  children,  and  upon  the 
children's  children,'^  even  "unto  the  third  and  fourth 
generation."* 

XII.  The  power  of  alcohol  to  cherish  old  age.  "  The 
old  man's  milk  I"  This  is  one  of  the  many  aliases  that 
alcohol  trades  under.  "  By  all  means,"  say  many,  "  keep 
strong  drink  from  the  lad  and  the  boy — '  corn  is  not  for 
staigs  ; '  but  the  grown  man,  if  he  be  discreet,  may  take 
at  least  a  little  with  impunity;  and  for  the  old  man,  a 
cordial  is  absolutely  necessary  ]  it  rouses  the  feeble  heart, 
and  warms  the  chill  limbs,  and  ever  and  anon  helps  the 
ebbing  tide  to  flow  again."  Very  plausible,  and  very 
pretty !     Unfortunately,  it  is  not  true. 

The  life  of  the  old  man  is  a  quiet,  reduced,  gentle 
affair ;  with  none  of  the  tumult  of  youth,  and  none  of 
the  energy  of  middle  age.  The  machinery  is  well-nigh 
worn  out ;  all  is  feeble,  and  parts  are  wanting,  or  but  ill 
repaired.  The  play  of  a  strong  and  sudden  steam-power 
would  now  be  very  dangerous. 

All  is  well  arranged  by  nature;  and  all  would  be  well, 
comparatively,  were  we  but  content  with  the  arrange- 
ment. The  engine  is  crank  and  weak,  but  little  coke  is 
taken  in,  but  little  steam  is  generated,  yet  the  piston 

*  Dr.  Livingstono  tells  us  that  consumption,  scrofula,  stone,  are 
quite  unknown  in  Central  Africa.  Is  this  happy  immunity  connected 
with  the  absence  of  alcoholics  that  reigns  there  ? 


154  alcohol:    its    power. 

plays  pretty  well  in  its  own  weak  way.  "  But  no,"  says 
the  wiseacre,  as  he  rudely  pokes  the  fire,  "the  coke 
must  be  made  to  burn  more  brightly,  and  more  must  be 
shovelled  on ;  the  working  power  must  be  increased,  for 
we  cannot  bear  to  see  the  wheels  revolve  so  leisurely"-— 
down-hill,  and  steep  in  the  gradient,  though  the  tram- 
way be. 

The  old  man's  appetite  is  small,  because  he  needs  but 
little  food ;  little  food  is  needed,  because  he  is  not  in- 
tended for  much  work ;  the  little  work  he  does,  produces 
more  or  less  disintegration  of  tissue ;  and  the  feebleness 
of  his  circulation,  and  breathing,  and  power  of  excre- 
tion, make  it  difficult  for  him  to  work  off  the  "  waste," 
such  as  it  is.  Yet,  with  prudence,  a  tolerable  adjust- 
ment may  be  maintained ;  and  such  is  nature's  arrange- 
ment for  the  evening  of  our  days.  But  you  say :  "  No. 
"We  must  have  the  bright  light  of  morning,  if  not  the 
flash  of  noon  —  if  not  always,  at  least  now  and  then." 
An  alcoholic  cordial  will  stimulate  the  appetite,  more 

food  will  be  taken,  and  then "Ay,  there's  the  rub :" 

What  then?  That  the  food  is  not  digested;  or  if  it  be, 
in  part,  it  hampers  the  blood  with  what  it  cannot  manage; 
the  nervous  system  is  roused  to  call  an  action  from  the 
various  organs  which  they  cannot  bear;  and  the  alcohol, 
oxidating  in  the  lungs,  shuts  up  the  "  waste  "  in  a  very 
dangerous  accumulation.  No  wonder  that  the  old  man 
is  in  consequence  made  liable  to  apoplexy,  and  conges- 
tion of  the  brain ;  to  palpitations  and  angina;  to  wheezing 
asthma,  and  bronchitis ;  to  heart-burn  and  indigestion ; 
to  jaundice  and  bilious  attacks;  to  gout  and  gravel;  to 


IN    CHERISHING    OLD    AGE.  155 

troublrci  of  the  skin ;  or  to  some  sudden  and  great  cala- 
mity fr^m  a  plurality  of  morbid  causes  combined. 

Look  at  the  old  man's  leg.  A  wasted,  shrivelled 
thing;  the  bone's  edge  as  sharp  as  a  knife,  the  skin 
loose  as  the  pantaloon,  the  muscles  flabby  and  weak. 
When  the  man  is  up,  what  say  you  to  galvanising  it  by 
some  powerful  battery,  so  that  it  may  disport  itself,  at 
least  occasionally,  as  if  in  the  leaps  and  gambols  of  its 
youth?  Would  not  success  imply  great  danger  of  a 
break-down  ?  Rupture  of  muscle  or  tendon,  or  fracture 
of  bone  ?  And  yet  what  is  absurd  and  mischievous  on 
the  part,  you  would  bring  to  bear  on  the  whole  system ! 
By  your  alcoholic  stimulus  you  would  seek  to  jerk  the 
poor  old  man  into  a  convulsive  and  paroxysmal  imitation 
of  his  younger  days,  the  least  injurious  effect  of  which 
must  be  exhaustion,  and  acceleration  of  general  decay. 

So  much  for  his  body :  what  of  his  mind  ?  That  is 
intended  for  no  adventitious  stimulus  such  as  alcohol's. 
It  is  evening-tide  with  him,  and  the  light  should  be  sub- 
dued, yet  clear.  He  has  accounts  to  settle,  his  house  to 
set  in  order;  he  has  a  long  way  to  go  soon,  and  he  would 
see  clearly  at  least  the  path's  beginning;  he  has  to  com- 
mune much  with  himself,  much  with  those  around  him, 
and  most  of  all  with  his  Grod.  He  would  be  calm  and 
composed  as  he  approaches  nearer  and  nearer  to  the 
solemn  interview,  face  to  face,  with  the  yet  Unseen  but 
Not  Unknown,  and  the  then  Judge  of  All.  And  what 
do  you  with  this  "  cordial  ?''  Do  you  not  reflect  that  it 
has  a  special  action  on  the  brain,  exciting,  yet  pervert- 
ing ?  Rousing  imagination,  with  which  the  old  man  has 
little  now  to  do,  for  it  is  stern  reality  that  is  both  beside 


156  alcohol:  i<rs  power. 

and  before  him;  it  is  the  last  and  great  assize  he  is  has- 
tening to,  and  imagination  has  no  place  there.  Dimi- 
nishing self-control,  abating  the  already  enfeebled  power 
of  will,  and  tending  to  depress  all  that  he  would  seek  to 
exalt  in  his  moral  nature  —  unfitting  him  quite  for  that 
else  promised  mounting  up  with  wings  as  an  eagle,  that 
running  and  not  being  weary,  that  walking  and  not 
being  faint. 

I  protest  that  I  know  no  more  painful  sight  than  the 
old  man  thus  abused  —  often  in  mistaken  kindness ;  his 
weak  frame  shaken  and  strained  under  forced  potations, 
and  his  mind  lapsed  into  a  maundering  state  little  short 
of  inebriety. 

And  men  call  this  food  —  cordial  —  milk  —  "  the  old 
man's  milk ! "  A  strange  perversion  of  words !  Seek- 
ing bread,  will  ye  give  him  a  serpent  ? 

In  the  case  of  children  possessed  of  anything  like  fair 
health,  the  ordinary  use  of  alcoholics  is  especially  absurd 
and  reprehensible.  They  need  no  stimulus ;  and  it  is 
well  known  that  in  them  the  nervous  system  is  very  in- 
tolerant of  narcotics  in  any  form.  Opium,  for  example, 
must  be  given  in  very  guarded  doses,  otherwise  the  most 
serious  results  cannot  fail  to  ensue.  And  alcohol,  hav- 
ing such  a  direct  and  powerful  action  on  the  brain,  will 
most  certainly  not  be  borne  with  impunity,  unless  its 
use  be  demanded  by  the  stern  necessity  of  disease.  Un- 
less the  law  of  tolerance  intervene,  the  beer  and  wine 
given  to  children  must  ever  prove  more  than  mere  non- 
necessaries. 


IN    PROLONGING    LIFE.  157 

XIII.  The  power  of  alcohol  to  prolong  life.  Enough 
lias  been  said  to  render  any  formal  consideration  of  this 
question  altogether  unnecessary.  It  has  no  such  power, 
save  in  the  fancy  of  the  fool,  or  in  the  wit  of  the  hu- 
morist. 

The  one  may  tell  us  that  — 

"The  best  of  all  ways  to  lengthen  our  days 
Is  to  steal  a  few  hoiirs  from  the  night." 

But  we  know  that  such  theft  deceives  itself,  is  soon  de- 
tected, and  comes  to  a  bad  end. 

Or  again :  "  Mr. ,  if  you  really  wish  to  lengthen 

your  days,  you  must  give  up  wine.^'  "  I  believe  you,  I 
believe  you,"  replied  the  witty  barrister,  with  a  sad  smile ; 
"  for  yesterday  I  took  no  wine,  and  it  was  certainly  the 
longest  day  I  ever  experienced." 

And  this  is  all.  So  far  from  prolonging,  it  shortens 
life.  The  drunkard  dies  soon ',  the  free  liver  dies  sooner 
than  he  otherwise  would;  and  of  the  moderate  but  ha- 
bitual alcoholist  it  is  no  want  of  charity  to  say,  that  if 
he  attain  to  a  good  old  age,  it  is  not  in  consequence  of 
his  "  luxury,"  but  notwithstanding. 

Let  the  sceptic  try  a  simple  practical  experiment  for- 
merly hinted  at  (p.  77).  Let  him  propose  to  insure  his 
life ;  let  him  set  down,  opposite  to  habits,  this  answer : 
"Takes  wine  and  spirits  freely;"  and  we  are  much  mis- 
taken if  the  alternative  proposed  to  him  by  the  directors, 
of  having  either  his  proposal  declined,  or  an  extra  pre- 
mium assessed,  do  not  bring  him  to  another  way  of  think- 
ing. Or  let  him  take  this  fact.  There  is  a  life-insu- 
rance office,  last  year  issuing  upwards  of  2500  new  poli- 


158  alcohol:  its  power. 

cies,  whicla  has  two  branches :  one  solely  for  abstinents, 
the  other  for  ordinary  business — the  insured  in  the  lat>- 
ter  being  of  course  a  fair  average  of  "  temperate "  men. 
These  two  branches  —  abstinent  and  temperate  —  have 
been  in  parallel  operation  for  about  seven  years;  and 
the  result  is  nineteen  per  cent,  in  favor  of  the  former.* 
Or  let  him  step  from  the  civil  into  the  military  depart- 
ment ;  and  referring  to  the  government  returns  regard- 
ing the  mortality  of  troops  in  India,  he  will  find  these 
troops  arranged  in  three  classes  —  abstinent,  temperate, 
intemperate — with  their  respective  mortalities  as  follows : 
abstinent,  11  in  the  1000 ;  temperate,  23  in  the  1000 ; 
intemperate,  44  in  the  1000. 

XIV.  The  power  of  alcohol  to  affect  the  mind. — This 
is  undeniably  great ;  but  is  it  for  weal  or  for  woe  ? 

Recall  what  has  been  already  said  upon  this  subject; 
and  for  the  convenience  of  further  illustration,  divide  the 
mental  condition  into  these  four  parts  : — 1,  the  intellect; 
2,  the  will,  the  governing  and  controlling  power;  3,  the 
moral  emotions;   4,  the  animal   passions  and  desires. 

*  In  a  private  note,  the  resident  director  says :  "  The  bonus  in  the 
temperance  section  was  just  19  per  cent,  more  than  in  the  general 
section.  I  find  that  in  the  years  1855  and  1856  the  amount  paid  on 
account  of  claims  in  the  temperance  department  was  considerably 
less  than  was  paid  in  the  general  section ;  that  is,  comparing  the 
receipts  and  disbursements  for  claims  in  the  two  sections.  It  is  true, 
the  claims  in  the  general  section  were  unusually  heavy  in  1855,  but 
I  have  put  the  two  years  together.  In  the  temperance  section,  we 
paid  in  the  two  years  less  than  one-third  of  the  amount  received.  lu 
the  general  section,  we  paid  £12,305  out  of  £26,912,  which  is  not 
much  less  than  half !  These  figures  apply  to  the  whole  life-policies 
only,  and  give  a  decided  advantage  to  the  temperance  section." 


TO    AFEECT    THE    MIND.  159 

Now,  the  well-ascertained  effect  of  alcohol,  when  taken 
in  any  considerable  quantity,  is  to  stimulate  No.  1,  espe- 
cially so  far  as  the  imaginative  and  ideal  powers  are  con- 
cerned; to  depress  No.  2;  to  pervert  and  depress  No.  3;* 
and  to  excite  and  intensify  No.  4.  In  a  larger  dose, 
No.  1  is  thoroughly  perverted ;  Numbers  2  and  3  are 
extinct ;  and  No.  4  is  in  the  ascendant.  With  a  larger 
dose  still,  the  distorted  remnant  of  No.  1  may  hardly  be 
recognised,  while  No.  4  reigns  paramount,  in  unnatural 
excess.  The  evil  desire  of  lust  or  revenge  often  re- 
mains, while  the  paralyzed  body  refuses  to  minister  to 
its  gratification.  A  pitiable  spectacle  indeed !  Verily 
it  is  no  stretch  of  language  to  say  that  drunkenness 
places  man  on  a  level  with  the  brute !  The  language 
falls  short  of  truth.  He  digs  beneath  that  deep  a  lower 
deep,  and  in  this  the  brutified  man  wilfully  lies  down 
and  wallows. f 

Such  are  undeniably  the  effects  of  alcohol  in  consider- 

*  The  Rev.  Dr.  Hitchcock,  of  Amherst  College,  testifies  that  one 
of  the  decided  results  of  his  abstaining  from  wine  was  "  the  power 
of  determining,  with  greater  accuracy,  the  nature  of  the  religious 
emotions;"  while  the  Hon.  Judge  Brewster  states — "From  experience 
and  observation,  I  believe  that  the  use  of  fermented  drinks  is  one  of 
the  most  potent  agencies  in  paralyzing  the  life  of  active  piety  and 
holy  obedience." 

•j- "A  dram-drinker!  Faugh,  faugh!"  says  Christopher  North. 
"  Look  over,  lean  over,  that  stile,  where  a  pig  lies  wallowing  in  the 
mire  —  and  a  voice,  faint  and  feeble,  and  far  off,  as  if  it  came  from 
some  dim  and  remote  world  within  your  lost  soul,  will  cry,  that  of 
the  two  beasts,  that  bristly  one,  agrunt  in  sensual  sleep,  with  its  snout 
snoring  across  the  husk-trough,  is,  as  a  physical,  moral,  and  intellee- 
tual' being,  superior  to  you  —  dram-drinker,  drunkard,  dotard,  and 
self-doomed." 


160  alcohol:  its  power. 

able  and  large  doses.  Taken  in  smaller  quantity,  the 
effects  are  less  marked,  but  have  still  the  same  tendency. 
There  is  moral  as  well  as  mental  loss;  injury  as  to  what 
the  man  is,  with  serious  peril  to  what  he  ought  to  he. 
Moreover,  let  it  be  remembered  that  the  effect  accumu- 
lates by  frequent  repetition,  and  that  no  dose  of  alcohol, 
however  small,  can  be  taken  without  acting  on  the 
brain,  and  consequently  we  believe  on  the  mind,  more 
or  less. 

The  ultimate  result  of  such  actings  we  have  seen  to 
be,  in  extreme  cases,  delirium,  fatuity,  insanity;  mental 
disease.  In  the  more  protracted  and  chronic  cases,  in- 
tellectual perversion,  animal  ascendency,  moral  abase- 
ment; mental  degradation  and  decay.* 

A  man  begins  fairly,  and  continues  respectable  for  a 
time.  At  first  his  indulgences  are  only  convivial,  and 
within  moderate  bounds.  These  bounds,  however,  are 
by  and  by  transgressed — once  and  again.  And  after  no 
long  time,  it  too  frequently  happens  that  the  love  of, 
and  dependence  on,  the  unnatural  stimulus  have  become 
too  strong  to  wait  for  the  social  opportunity  and  social 
restraint.  The  drink  is  taken  for  its  own  sake,  and 
secretly.  The  power  of  the  drag  is  gone ;  and  the  down- 
ward movement  is  precipitate.  "  There  is  a  difference, 
no  doubt,"  says  Paley,  "between  convivial  intemperance, 

*  "  The  habit  of  using  any  intoxicating  liquor,"  says  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Leonard  Woods,  the  great  American  divine,  "  tends  to  inflame  all 
that  is  depraved  and  earthly,  and  to  extinguish  all  that  is  spiritual 
and  holy.  It  is  a  poison  to  the  soul,  as  really  as  to  the  body."  It 
is  a  truth,  though  from  the  mouth  of  Mohammed,  that  alcohol,  is  a 
"mother  of  sins." 


AS    AN    INSTRUMENT    OF   VICE.  161 

and  that  solitary  sottishness  which  waits  neither  for  com- 
pany nor  invitation.  But  the  one^  I  am  afraid,  commonly 
ends  in  the  other;  and  this  last  is  the  basest  degradation 
to  which  the  faculties  and  dignity  of  human  nature  can 
be  reduced." 

The  tendency  J  as  stated  by  the  philosopher,  I  can  from 
my  own  observation  amply  confirm.  Many  have  I  seen 
engulfed,  who  never  dreamt  of  danger.  "Ah,  so  and 
so  is  done  for,"  I  have  often  heard  a  bon-vivant  say; 
"  he  has  taken  to  brandy  in  the  forenoon,  and  when  a 
man  does  that  all  is  over  with  him."  These  same  men 
—  quick  to  see  the  mote  that  was  in  their  brother's  eye, 
but  blind  to  the  beam  in  their  own  —  I  have  seen,  after 
but  a  short  time,  clutching  their  brandy  bottle,  morn- 
ing, noon,  and  night — hopeless  drunkards.  "Look  not 
thou  on  the  wine  when  it  is  red,  when  it  giveth  his 
color  in  the  cup,  when  it  moveth  itself  aright.  At  the 
last,  it  biteth  like  a  serpent,  and  stingeth  like  an  adder." 

And  this  brings  us  naturally  to  consider  the  power  of 
alcohol  under  another  and  larger  heading. 

XV.  The  'power  of  alcohol  as  an  instrument  of  vice. — 
Of  course,  our  present  limits  prevent  anything  but  the 
merest  sketch  of  this  vast  and  terrible  subject. 

That  alcohol,  in  its  various  forms,  is  largely  used  for 
vicious  purposes,  or  at  least  with  vicious  effect,  is  too 
well  known  to  all.  The  reason  why,  it  is  not  difficult  to 
understand.  The  first  efi'ects  of  alcohol  are  pleasurable, 
and  to  many  minds  in  all  ranks  of  life  intensely  so ;  it 
is  their  favorite  sensual  indulgence ;  and ' —  assuming  a 
virtue  which  they  have  not  —  they  are  ready  to  "  com- 
11 


162  alcohol:  its  power. 

pound "  for  this  one  sin  which  they  are  specially  ''  in- 
clined to/'  "  by  damning  those  they  have  no  mind  to." 
The  advanced  effects,  on  the  other  hand  —  when  moral 
sense  and  self-control  are  gone,  and  excited  animal  pas- . 
sion  reigns  supreme  —  afford  a  grosser  gratification  to 
^'  lewd  fellows  of  the  baser  sort."  Besides — and  mainly 
—  in  both  parties  there  is  the  evil  nature,  or  unrenewed 
man,  at  the  bottom  of  all  the  mischief,  prompting  to  self- 
indulgence  and  sin ;  and  on  every  side,  all  around  him, 
there  are  special  temptations,  "  thick  as  leaves  in  Val- 
lambrosa ;"  with  evil  custom  varnishing  and  toning  down 
the  whole.  Man's  evil  nature  originates  and  maintains 
a  desire,  the  gratification  of  which  pleases  the  grosser 
sense ;  the  all  but  universal  use  of  the  agent  of  evil,  with 
the  marvellous  frequency  of  the  extension  of  this  to  what 
is  base  and  sinful,  gives  a  cloak  of  commonness  and  con- 
ventionality; and  the  result  is,  that  the  whisperings  of 
conscience,  as  well  as  the  teachings  of  sad  experience, 
are  overborne  and  set  at  nought.  The  young  are  lured 
on  by  little  and  little ;  all  but  imperceptibly  they  wander 
further  and  further  from  the  path  of  temperance  and 
virtue;  the  quicksands  of  sensuality  lay  fast  hold  of 
their  palsied  limbs;  the  fiend  binds  them  at  his  will, 
slowly  but  securely;  and,  ere  they  are  aware,  they  have 
become  the  bond  slaves  of  intemperance.  This  is  the 
consummation  of  Satan's  favorite  scheme  for  thwarting 
man's  redemption.  By  a  lie  he  does  it,  as  of  old  he 
compassed  his  fall.  "  It  is  good  for  food  (?),  it  is  pleasant 
to  the  eyes,  and  to  be  desired  to  make  one  wise."  "  Ye 
shall  not  surely  die."     "  Your  eyes  shall  be  opened,  and 


AS    AN    INSTRUMENT    OF    VICE.  163 

ye  shall  be  as  gods."     It  is  his  master-piece  of  villany; 
he  slays  both  body  and  soul. 

Subdivide,  once  more,  the  effects  of  alcohol,  and  its 
poioer  as  a  producer  of  crime  becomes  very  plain.  1. 
In  moderate  dose,  the  imagination  is  at  once  quickened 
and  let  loose,  the  animal  propensities  are  roused,  and 
self-control  is  impaired.  This  state  obviously  disposes 
to  the  indulgence  of  lust,  whether  of  a  sensual  or  cove- 
tous kind.  It  is  favorable  to  uncleanness  and  theft.  2. 
In  a  larger  dose  the  animal  is  more  roused  still;  reason 
is  perverted,  if  not  actually  injured;  moral  perception 
and  restraint  fall  low;  and,  the  power  of  control  weak- 
ening rapidly,  the  man  is  much  at  the  mercy  of  the  worse 
and  baser  passions.  Hence  anger  and  contention ;  riot- 
ing and  revenge ;  assaults  and  housebreakings ;  and  all 
premeditated  villany.*  3.  Increase  still  the  dose.  Then 
all  is  more  untoward ;  and  the  man,  beside  himself,  be- 
comes more  and  more  dangerous,  so  long  as  the  brain 
remains  in  any  degree  subservient  to  his  sordid  sense,  or 
the  muscles  obedient  to  his  wayward  will.  Now  he  is 
ripe  for  sudden  bloodshed,  murder,  rape.  The  tiger  is 
not  more  savage  than  the  man  thus  made  a  monster. 
Nay,  the  tiger  is  the  better  creature  of  the  two,  inas- 
much as  he  follows  the  instinct  of  his  peculiar  nature, 
and  in  his  savageness  seeks  but  to  satisfy  a  troublesome 
hunger,  in  the  way  which  to  him  seems  perfectly  legiti- 

*  "When  Bishop  and  his  partner,"  says  Sir  Benjamin  Brodie, 
"  murdered  the  Italian  boy,  in  order  that  they  might  sell  his  body,  it 
appeared  in  evidence  that  they  prepared  themselves  for  the  task  hy 
a  plentiful  libation  of  gin.  The  same  course  is  pursued  by  house- 
breakers, and  others,  who  engage  in  desperate  criminal  undertakings." 
— Psi/chological  Researches. 


164  alcohol;  its  power. 

mate.  In  the  estimate  of  his  fellows,  he  would  be  placed 
in  the  same  category  with  a  man  fishing,  or  making  a 
good  bag  by  means  of  his  gun.  For  a  human  being, 
transformed  by  drunken  debauch  into  a  fiend,  we  must 
look  for  a  truer  analogue  than  can  be  found  among  the 
beasts  of  prey.  He  is,  as  the  law  rates  him,  "  volunta- 
rius  demon "  —  by  his  own  act  a  devil.  The  deed  of 
violence  past,  he  may  scarce  remember  it ;  and  in  one 
sense  he  may  be  said  to  have  ceased  to  be  responsible. 
But  he  cannot  escape  the  guilt  of  having  induced,  wil- 
fully and  wantonly,  this  brutal  charge;  and,  as  has  been 
well  said  by  Dr.  "Wilson,  in  this  view  drunkenness  may  be 
itself  regarded  as  a  capital  crime. 

1.  On  the  individual,  the  eiFect  of  vicious  alcoholic 
indulgence  is  disease  of  the  body,  as  we  have  seen. 
Sooner  or  later,  it  must  come.  Intemperance  cannot 
dwell  in  a  sound  frame;  at  least,  it  never  does.  Disease 
of  the  mind,  too,  is  not  far  ofi".  It  may  be  delirium  or 
insanity,  temporary  or  confirmed ;  or  it  may  stop  short 
of  that,  resting  at  senile  drivelling,  and  childish  folly. 
The  moral  sense  is  blunted;*  and  the  better  part  of 
man  sustains  both  degradation  and  decay.  The  soul  is 
dying ;  and,  if  grace  restrain  not,  will  soon  be  dead  — 
forever. 

*■  Ultimately,  the  man  becomes  a  moral  idiot  The  moral  principle 
is  not  only  lessened,  but  absolutely  extinct — eaten  out,  as  color  is  by 
acid.  But  two  days  since,  in  visiting  a  young  man,  well  born  and 
of  high  connections,  become  a  drunkard,  with  one  breath  he  assured 
me  of  his  being  a  man  of  honor  and  a  gentleman,  and  with  the  next 
told  me  a  deliberate  falsehood.  To  such,  indeed,  lying,  cheating, 
stealing  come  quite  naturally :  they  have  no  perception  of  either  the 
sin  or  the  shame. 


ASAN     INSTRUMENT    OF    VICE.  165 

One  day,  at  a  railway  station,  when  passengers  were 
congregating  in  groups,  before  the  starting  of  a  train, 
my  attention  was  attracted  to  a  tall  middle-aged  man, 
who  was  slowly  making  his  way  to  lean  against  a  pillar. 
His  dress,  evidently  once  black  and  reputable,  was  soiled, 
and  torn,  and  covered  with  mud.  His  limbs  were  bent 
and  tottering ;  his  hands  hung  loosely  by  his  side,  and 
shook  like  aspens.  His  face  was  haggard  and  pale  —  or 
rather  would  have  looked  so,  but  for  the  dirt  it  bore ; 
unwashed,  unshaven ;  a  brown  rivulet  of  snuff  massing 
the  upper  lip,  and  trickling  down  the  chin ;  the  eyes 
fixed,  and  of  a  glassy  stare,  with  the  eyelids  half  closed ; 
the  jaw  dropped,  the  mouth  open,  and  slavering  like  an 
idiot's.  His  hat  —  muddy,  and  crushed,  and  awry  — 
was  fixed,  hard  and  low,  upon  his  crouching  head  and 
shoulders.  His  shoes  were  brown  and  broken.  He 
might  be  sixty;  he  might  be  forty;  all  too  plainly  he 
was  a  drunkard,  seeking  a  country  home,  after  wallow- 
ing for  at  least  one  night  in  the  city's  mire.  Something 
told  me  that  he  was  no  stranger;  many  years  must  have 
passed  since  I  had  seen  him ;  but  in  a  few  minutes  me- 
mory carried  me  through  all  his  antecedents.  I  remem- 
bered him  a  university  student,  of  almost  the  same  age 
and  standing  with  myself;  the  gayest  of  the  gay,  in 
heart  and  disposition;  gentle,  loving,  kind;  studious, 
too,  and  talented.  I  remembered  him  licensed  to  preach 
the  gospel ;  popular,  respected,  devoted.  I  remembered 
him  settled  down  in  a  country  charge;  married,  the 
father  of  a  hopeful  family,  the  centre  of  a  loving  circle, 
the  pastor  of  an  attached  flock.  Then  came  the  dark 
cloud.     He  had  always  been  of  social  habits,  and  lie 


166  alcohol:   its   power. 

had  indulged  them ;  through  indulgence  the  power  of 
drink  had  crept  upon  him  unawares ;  and  now,  with  a 
bound,  it  took  him  by  the  throat,  and  held  him  down. 
I  remembered  to  have  heard  strange  rumors  about  that 
manse;  there  had  been  surmises,  even  among  his  distant 
friends,  of  a  sad  fall  there ;  and  news  had  come  one  day, 
like  a  thunder-clap,  of  drunkenness,  and  delirium,  and 
deposition.  That  was  long  since;  and  the  sad  story  had 
faded  greatly  from  my  recollection.  But  here  he  stood , 
a  fearful  proof  and  concentration  of  it  all.  His  body 
that  of  a  paralysed  idiot,  at  least  for  the  time ;  his  mind 
sunk  to  nothingness ;  his  soul  —  and  the  souls  of  his 
people  —  what  of  them  ?  Alas  !  alas  !  these  shaking 
helpless  hands  of  his  are  stained  with  the  blood  of  souls 
committed  to  his  care  —  himself  a  hopeless  castaway. 

Yes,  the  power  of  alcohol,  in  vice,  is  terrible.  Its 
bursting  is  like  that  of  a  shell;  annihilating  the  object 
struck,  and  in  many  fragments  dealing  death  and  de- 
struction far  and  near. 

2.  On  the  family.  What  does  it  here  ?  Dirt,  dis- 
order, discord  are  its  first  fruits.  Go  through  that  ham- 
let, and  you  may  tell  off  the  drunken  from  the  sober  by 
attending  merely  to  their  outward  estate.  That  white- 
washed window;  the  ivy,  honeysuckle,  or  woodbine 
climbing  up  its  side ;  the  well-trained  rose,  or  humble 
daisy,  in  the  garden-plot ;  the  door  well  swept,  and  the 
floor  all  clean ;  the  table  shining,  and  the  fire  burning 
bright;  the  well-filled  pot  boiling  apace,  or  simmering 
happily;  the  bed  made  smooth,  and  the  tidy  coverlet 
without  a  wrinkle ;  the  housewife  herself  trig,  and  neat, 
singing  and  smiling,  and  busy  still  with  her  broom  or 


AS    AN    INSTRUMENT    OF   VICE.  167 

brusli  —  tliese  are  no  marks  of  drunkenness.  Look  for 
their  counterparts,  and  you  will  find  it  there. 

And  with  it  much  other  bitter  fruit ;  crimination  and 
recrimination;  scolding,  swearing,  woe,  and  weeping; 
red  eyes  and  black  eyes ;  broken  heads  and  broken  char- 
acters; cold,  and  no  fire;  hunger,  and  no  food;  children, 
but  no  comforts-flying,  straying,  stealing ;  sickness,  and 
no  sympathy;  debt,  and  no  credit;  disease,  death,  the 
grave  —  and  no  hope  beyond. 

Poor  drunkard !  — 

"  Your  friends  avoid  you ;  brutishly  transform'd, 
They  hardly  know  you ;  or  if  one  remains 
To  wish  you  well,  he  wishes  you  in  heaven. 
Despised,  unwept,  you  fall." 

And  what  brought  this  dismal  brood  of  evils  into  the 
family?  The  bottle.  It  came,  called,  "looked  in,"  as 
Vi  friend!  Fathers  and  mothers!  husbands  and  wives! 
what  think  you  of  a  neighbor  that^  under  the  pretence 
of  friendship,  worms  himself  into  your  home,  and,  setting 
you  by  the  ears,  breaks  your  peace  for  ever;  stealing  this, 
and  breaking  that,  leaves  your  floor  and  walls  bare,  your 
hearth  empty;  blackening  your  character,  and  burning 
your  self-respect,  beggars  you ;  luring  you  on  to  perpe- 
tration of  grossest  sin,  laughs  as  he  sees  you  sell  your 
soul  for  nothing;  and  not  done  with  you  yet,  sticks  to 
your  offspring,  and  haunts  them  through  the  world  as 
drunkard's  brats  I 

His  "power"  is  terrible;  resist  it  with  all  your 
might,  —  and — here  is  the  secret  of  success — from  the 
beginning. 

3.  On  the  community  at  large. — Taxes  and  public  bur- 


168  alcohol:   its  power. 

dens  of  all  kinds  accumulate  j  penitentiaries  and  prisons 
grow  full;  judges  and  jailors  are  overworked;  idleness, 
ignorance,  poverty,  crime,  spread  like  a  pestilence ;  dis- 
ease doubles  its  victims,  and  grave-digging  grows  a 
thriving  trade ;  the  country  is  bleeding  at  every  pore, 
from  many  an  inward  wound  3  and  in  their  own  persons 
her  sons  and  daughters  are  parting  with  both  the  bulk 
and  the  bravery  of  former  times. 

There  is  a  hale  and  hearty  centre  yet,  thank  God ;  but 
it  is  being  sorely  pressed  and  put  to.  Sober  industry 
must  redouble  its  labor,  that  drunken  sloth  may  live  and 
fester. 

And  worse  remains  behind.  Nations  have  no  here- 
after, and  their  sin  meets  its  guerdon  now.  A  nation 
of  drunkards  may  well  tremble,  knowing  that  "  the  Lord 
God  Omnipotent  reigneth.^^ 

XYI.  The  power  of  alcoliol  to  resist  arid  neutralize  the 
gospel.  —  That  such  power  exists,  in  great  intensity,  ne- 
cessarily follows  from  what  has  gone  before.  The  gospel, 
being  the  true  agent  of  man's  elevation  and  reform,  is 
opposed  bitterly  and  unceasingly  by  the  Enemy  of  man. 
He  seeks  to  thwart  it  in  every  way;  and  in  his  expe- 
rience he  seems  to  have  found  intemperance  the  most 
effective  of  all  his  hellish  antidotes.  Look  to  China. 
^^As  shown  by  Mr.  Matheson,  in  his  excellent  pamphlet, 
when  did  opium  enter  that  country?  When  the  gospel 
came.  Men  sought  to  introduce  the  Bible,  and  Satan 
took  care  that  intemperance  by  opium  should  accompany 
it.  And  where  does  drunkenness  most  prevail?  In 
those  European  countries,  generally  speaking,  where  the 


IN   ATTACHING   ITSELF   TO   ITS    VICTIM.    169 

Bible  is  most  free.  Not  that  Christianity  produces 
drunkenness ;  not  that  true  Christianity  is  open  to  the 
allegation  by  the  heathen  of  being  synonymous  with 
drunkenness;  but  because  Satan  takes  care  always  to 
accompany  the  Bible  with  strong  drink,  as  its  antidote, 
to  neutralize  its  effects.*  While  the  Son  of  Man,  by 
his  Spirit,  sows  the  good  seed,  Satan  comes  behind  and 
sows  his  cruel  tares."  f 

XVII.  The  'power  of  alcohol  in  attaching  itself  to  its 
victim  —  the  last,  but  not  the  least,  in  our  enumeration. 
The  speckled  boa  winds  itself  slowly  round  the  hapless 
antelope,  breaks  all  his  bones, .  beslimes  the  body  with 
his  tongue,  and  swallows  it  at  leisure.  So  does  alcohol 
with  man.  The  foolish  fellow  thinks  that  he  is  consum- 
ing the  whisky;  all  the  while  the  whisky  is  consuming 
him.  Or,  rather,  the  seducer  is  as  some  fiend,  in  fairest 
form  of  woman,  who  with  blandishment  and  smile  lures 
on  the  silly  one.  "With  her  much  fair  speech  she 
causeth  him  to  yield,  with  the  flattering  of  her  lips  she 
forces  him.  He  goeth  after  her  straightway,  as  an  ox 
goeth  to  the  slaughter,  or  as  a  fool  to  the  correction  of 
the  stocks;  till  a  dart  strikes  through  his  liver;  as  a  bird 
hasteth  to  the  snare,  and  knoweth  not  that  it  is  for  his 
life."  Her  arms,  once  around  him,  will  scarce  let  go 
their  hold.  At  first  she  leads  him  gently,  in  dance,  and 
gaiety,  and  enjoyment;  their  way  is  among  flowers,  and 

*  "  Wherever  God  erects  a  house  of  prayer, 
The  devil  always  builds  a  chapel  there." 
And  the  devotion  he  most  favors  is  that  at  the  shrine  of  the  publican, 
t  Speech  in  Free  General  Assembly,  1857. 


170  alcohol:  its  poaver. 

green  meadows,  and  pleasant  groves ;  but  as  tliey  whirl 
faster  on,  the  sky  darkens,  the  road  grows  rugged ;  there 
are  briers  and  thorns,  and  dismal  swamps,  and  dreary 
wastes.  Now  he  is  alarmed,  and  struggles  to  be  free. 
Violence,  reproach,  supplication,  are  all  in  vain.  The 
hold  grows  tighter,  and  the  giddy  pace  still  mends. 
The  night  is  darkening  now  3  and  there  are  strange 
sounds  and  gloamings  in  the  air.  Other  cold  hands  are 
on  him;  and  other  voices  whisper  venom  in  his  ears. 
The  yawning  gulf  is  nigh  at  hand;  and  another  power 
than  man's  alone  can  save  him. 

CONCLUSION. 

Such  is  our  estimate  of  the  place  and  power  of  alcohol. 
Gathering  up  the  points  of  the  imperfect  sketch,  let  us 
look  them  in  the  face.  And  though,  once  more,  repeti- 
tions may  offend  the  fastidious,  not  a  few  perhaps  may 
think,  with  me,  such  reiteration  warranted ;  satisfied  that 
nothing  save  repeated  blows  can  break  this  hard  crust 
of  custom.* 

Alcohol  is  a  poison  ;  potent  and  pernicious.  To  whom 
are  we  to  give  it  ?  The  ordinary  and  legitimate  use  of 
poisons,  as  such,  is  to  destroy  life  that  is  noxious.  Kats 
and  mice  are  slaughtered  thus,  in  a  useful  way,  by 
arsenic ;  and  game-keepers  find  strychnine  very  effectual 
in  removing  "vermin."     But  these  lower  animals  are 

*  I  know  well  enough  that  there  are  unseemly,  if  not  unnecessary, 
repetitions  in  the  preceding  pages.  My  apology  is,  that  the  whole 
has  been  written  in  patches  and  portions  —  not  continuously;  and  I 
have  aimed  at  practical  usefulness  in  the  matter,  rather  than  polish 
in  the  manner  or  style. 


CONCLUSION.  171 

too  wise  in  their  day  and  generation  to  be  cauglit  with 
alcohol.  They  repudiate  it.  Sweeten  and  disguise  it 
as  you  may,  iliey  turn  from  what  man  at  first  takes,  if 
not  readily,  at  least  willingly,  and  afterwards  comes  to 
devour  with  greediness.  Learning  industry  from  the 
ant,  and  providence  from  the  bee,  he  may  from  these 
others  take  a  lesson  in  dietetics,  and  be  "wise." 

Whom  shall  I  poison  ?  Not  myself.  For  there  is  a 
mandate  that  I  dare  not  break — "  Do  thyself  no  harm  I" 
Not  others — "  Thou  shalt  not  kill ! " 

What  shall  we  do  with  it,  then  ?  Use  it,  like  other 
poisons,  in  small  quantities  and  medicinally. 

Alcohol  is  a  medicine;  powerful  and  often  precious. 
When  the  exigencies  of  nature  struggling  against  dis- 
ease require  its  help,  it  does  good  service  under  skilful 
regulation.  But,  like  other  strong  remedies  imported 
from  the  poison  class,  it  needs  careful  watching,  both  as 
to  the  dose  and  its  continuance ;  and  it  needs,  still  more, 
a  judicious  estimate  of  the  circumstances  which  seem  to 
demand  its  aid.  If  right  in  your  diagnosis,  you  may 
give  the  drug  freely,  yet  with  care ;  satisfied  that  the 
law  of  tolerance  will  bear  you  safely  through.  You  will 
tell  upon  the  disease  favorably;  and  you  will  not  hurt 
the  system  either  now  or  hereafter.  But  err  in  your 
diagnosis,  and  be  at  once  lavish  and  lax  in  your  dosing, 
then  nothing  but  evil  can  follow.  The  disease  will  be 
aggravated ;  and,  the  law  of  tolerance  becoming  adverse, 
you  risk  and  may  ruin  the  system  that  you  seek  to  save. 

Remember  that  this  medicine,  like  opium,  when  given 
or  continued  unnecessarily,  even  in  moderate  dosing,  has 
a  dangerous  and  seductive  tendency  to  lay  hold  of  the 


172  alcohol:  its  power. 

frame ;  refusing  to  let  it  go  —  inasmuch  as  it  has  itself 
engendered  a  morbid  necessity  for  the  continuance  of 
its  use.  The  skilful  practitioner  is  distinguished  from 
the  unskilful,  in  nothing  more  than  in  knowing  when 
to  stop  as  well  as  when  to  begin  his  remedies. 

Remember,  still  more,  that  alcohol,  far  beyond  any 
other  drug,  has  an  effect  on  mind  and  soul :  harmless, 
when  the  body  requires  its  careful  and  regulated  use ; 
most  pernicious  when  given  without  necessity  and  with- 
out control. 

Let  patients  beware  of  two  things  :  1.  How  they  take 
this  and  other  strong  remedies  at  their  own  hands.  2. 
How  they  permit  themselves  to  fall  into  the  habit  of  un- 
necessarily depending  upon  the  adventitious  aid  of  any 
drug  whatever.  The  stomach  is  a  culinary  stew-pan, 
not  a  pharmaceutical  mortar,  far  less  a  laboratory.  A 
system  of  constant  pill-pilling  is  bad  enough,  even  when 
the  things  swallowed  are  nothing  worse  than  "  Framp- 
ton's,"  "Cockle's,"  "Morison's,"  or  "Parr's."  But  if 
the  wilful  valetudinarian,  tired  of  simples,  comes  to  a 
daily  dabbling  in  arsenic,  nux  vomica,  or  such  like,  his 
state  is  all  the  more  perilous.  The  system  of  "  drugging" 
among  members  of  the  medical  profession  is  very  much 
given  up;  it  ought  to  be  wholly  abandoned  by  the  laity. 
Let  them  beware  of  giving  drugs  unnecessarily,  either 
to  themselves  or  others ;  and  to  this  end  let  them  take 
some  pains  to  know  what  the  jpros  and  cons  of  the  com- 
moner medicines  are :  when  they  may  do  good,  and  when 
they  may  or  must  be  hurtful.  "  My  Lady  Bountiful 
often  does  great  harm,  unthinkingly.  Some  one  is  re- 
puted sick ;  and  instantly  a  servant  is  despatched  with  a 


CONCLUSION.  173 

bottle  of  sherry  or  port  wine,  witli  a  request  to  know  if 
brandy  is  required."  *  There  is  a  common  notion  abroad 
that  alcohol  is  the  only  true  panacea;  and  that,  for  the 
emergency  at  least,  and  until  more  regular  aid  arrives, 
there  is  no  casualty,  by  accident  or  disease,  in  which  al- 
coholics, in  some,  or  any  form,  may  not  be  helpful  to 
keep  life  in.  "  Freedom  and  whisky  gang  thegether," 
madly  shouted  Scotland's  poet.  "  Sickness  and  brandy 
gang  thegether,"  as  madly  say  Scotland's  people — "  Tak 
aff  your  dram  ! "  This  is  one  of  the  "  vulgar  errors '' 
which  it  is  most  needful  to  put  down ;  founded  on  gross 
ignorance,  and  fraught  with  utmost  risk.  The  "dram" 
must  be  "  taken  aff" — but  in  another  sense  than  Burns 
dreamt  of. 

Let  alcohol  be  limited  to  its  original  use.  When  first 
brought  into  the  world,  in  its  concentrated  form,  during 
the  eleventh  century — and  they  were  "good  old  times," 
in  one  material  sense,  that  passed  without  it  —  it  was 
used  exclusively  as  a  medicine.  Under  the  pretentious 
title  of  "  aqua  vitae,"  it  was  doled  out  by  the  physician 
in  small  and  guarded  quantities  to  the  sick ;  and,  pro- 
bably, in  many  cases,  was  not  without  its  healing  vir- 
tues. Would  that  it  had  continued  thus  —  with  some 
just  claim  to  be  esteemed  the  friend,  and  not  the  enemy 
of  life  If 

Let  men  know  what  it  is,  and  what  it  can  do;  let  them 

*  Speech  in  the  Free  General  Assembly,  1857. 
f  Is  "aqua"  alcohol? 
Yes;  "aqua  fortis." 
"Aqua  vitae"  once; 
Now  "aqua  mortis." 


174  alcohol:   its   power. 

forbear  to  seek  from  it  what  it  cannot  give ;  and  let  them 
cease  to  substitute  it  for  what  it  is  not. 

Alcohol  is  not  food.  Instinct  does  not  make  it  so. 
The  child,  like  the  animal,  turns  from  it  with  disgust. 
Food  satisfies;  alcohol  breeds  thirst,  and  appetite;  it 
beguiles  the  stomach  into  a  craving  that  is  unsatiable, 
till  both  sense  and  reason  reel ;  the  frame,  even  when 
saturated,  is  not  satisfied,  but  like  the  daughter  of  the 
horse-leech,  still  cries,  "  Give  !  give  ! " 

It  is  not  food  in  any  sense  appreciable  to  common 
sense.  Let  it  not  be  used  as  food.  It  cannot  nourish 
or  give  strength;  it  can  only  stimulate.  It  cannot  give 
working  power ;  it  can  only  hurry  the  expenditure  of 
what  you  already  have;  and,  further,  it  hampers  and 
opposes  you  in  getting  that  store  renewed. 

It  has  the  faculty  of  generating  heat,  but  in  an  evil 
way  —  preventing  the  legitimate  and  natural  process, 
which  would  do  the  work  better;  while,  besides,  it 
leaves  a  noxious  product  behind,  altogether  unatoned 
for,  and  uncompensated. 

It  is  useful  as  a  calorific  only  on  emergency.  If  I  am 
exposed  to  great  cold,  if  I  have  no  food,  or  if  I  perceive 
a  necessity  for  speedily  raising  the  temperature  of  my 
body  before  the  digestion  of  food,  now  taken,  can  have 
opportunity  to  bring  its  calorific  power  into  play — then 
alcohol  is  useful.  I  use  it  accordingly;  but  with  no  in- 
tention of  continuance.  When  my  food  has  become 
digested,  the  need  for  alcohol  is  past;  and,  if  taken  then, 
it  will  do  harm.  In  future,  I  will  try  and  arrange 
matters  so  that  the  necessity  for  alcohol,  by  such  emer- 
gency, shall  not  arise.     With  food  and  clothing — put  in 


CONCLUSION.  175 

and  put  on  in  time  —  I  am  content  to  meet  the  intensest 
cold  that  alcohol  can  set  its  face  to. 

In  a  warm  climate,  alcohol  can  never  be  of  service, 
except  in  purely  medicinal  use;  and  even  thus  the 
tropical  practitioner  will  find  but  little  occasion  for  its 
services.  While  the  man  that  uses  it  daily,  and  freely, 
as  food,  is  literally  with  both  his  hands  knocking  nails 
into  his  coffin. 

But  there  as  well  as  here  —  though  mainly  here  — 
people  seem  firmly  set  in  the  belief  that  alcohol  is  food, 
and  may  with  all  propriety  be  used  accordingly;  setting 
even  such  free  and  easy  limits  to  their  "  moderation "  as 
admit  and  imply  "occasional"  excess.  The  result  is 
disastrous — in  broken  healths,  broken  characters,  broken 
fortunes,  and  broken  souls.  Drunkenness  is  the  scourge 
of  our  land.  And  the  main  secondary  cause  of  its 
spread  most  certainly  seems  to  be  the  false  dietetic  and 
domestic  place  of  alcohol.  Undo  this  fatal  error ;  put 
back  this  perilous  drug  whence  it  came — into  the  medi- 
cine-chest and  laboratory;  and  then  I  believe  a  master- 
stroke will  have  been  achieved  in  favor  of  temperance, 
and  all  its  happy  fruits.* 

*  The  jolly  squire  "  who  ate  well,  slept  well,  walked  well,  felt  well 
— and  that  was  all,"  told  us  that  he  had  never  taken  a  dose  of  medi- 
cine in  all  his  life,  but  once ;  and  that  was  to  oblige  a  nephew  who 
had  set  up  in  the  neighboring  town  as  a  druggist.  Let  men  take  a 
lesson  from  the  squire.  So  long  as  they  keep — and  would  keep — the 
evidences  of  health  he  mentions,  let  them  avoid  physic  —  of  every 
kind,  and  more  especially  of  this  kind;  and  if  their  connections  in 
life  render  it  at  any  time  expedient  for  them  to  bestow  a  little  patron- 
age on  the  alcohol-vender,  it  is  not  needful  that  they  should  swallow 
the  purchase.  In  short,  let  strong  drink  be  actually  what  it  ought  to 
be  —  "a  drug  in  the  market." 


176  alcohol:   its  power. 

To  this  end  let  me  adjure  you^  gentle  reader — in  the 
name  and  in  the  cause  of  perishing  millions  —  not  only 
to  give  assent  to  such  doctrine  as  this,  but  openly  and 
fearlessly  to  act  upon  it,  forthwith  and  always. 

Those  who  have  grown  old  in  the  absurd  custom  of 
the  time  will  find  a  difficulty  in  suddenly  making  a 
change.  •  Let  them  at  least  modify  what  they  may  not 
move.  And  warned  by  their  own  condition  of  partial 
enslavement,  let  them  do  what  they  may  to  deter  fol- 
lowing. 

Grown  men  have  no  such  drawback,  when  yet  in  the 
prime  and  vigor  of  their  days.  Their  systems  will  have 
to  sustain  no  dangerous  shock ;  and  their  strength  will 
be  all  the  better  for  the  shifting. 

The  young  are  adjured  to  consider  at  once  their  privi- 
lege and  responsibility.  They  have  no  difficulty  in  not 
learning  what  others  paid  hard  to  unlearn.  "  Leading" 
not  themselves  "  into  temptation,"  they  may  look  with 
confidence  to  Him  who  alone  can  "deliver"  them  "from 
evil." 

Alcohol  is  a  luxury,  in  one  sense,  no  doubt.  Its  first 
effects  *are  pleasurable  j  and  to  some  frames  intensely  so. 
But  its  tendencies,  even  in  truly  "  moderate "  allowance, 
are  alioays  evil.  These  tendencies  may  be  successfully 
resisted,  and  often  are,  through  strength  of  principle, 
and  manly  self-control.  But  in  how  many  a  goodly 
frame  is  not  the  progress  steadily  onward  and  down- 
ward ?  And  who  can  tell  when  the  restraint  which  now 
hinders  may  snap  in  twain  ?  The  terrible  characteristic 
of  this  luxury  is  its  insidious  power.  With  the  subser- 
viency of  a  slave  it  twines  itself  around  you,  obeying  all 


CONCLUSION.  177 

your  commands,  and  ministering  in  every  way  to  your 
comfort  and  happiness  —  for  a  time;  but  feeling  its  hold 
secure,  it  suddenly  rebels,  and,  laying  you  prostrate, 
tramples  you  in  the  mire.  The  rise  and  revenge  of  the 
cruel  and  cowardly  sepoy  is  not  more  fiendish  than  that 
of  your  former  slave.  There  is  no  indignity,  no  torture 
of  body  and  mind,  to  which  it  may  not  in  hellish  inge- 
nuity subject  you  J  ending  with  that  mightiest  massacre 
of  all,  beyond  the  power  of  any  mere  assassin  —  destruc- 
tion of  the  crushed  and  broken  soul. 

Why  is  it  that  men  will  love,  and  live  on,  that  which 
they  ought  above  all  things  else  to  fear  —  that  to  which 
is  given  the  power,  not  only  to  kill  the  body,  but  also  to 
cast  both  body  and  soul  into  hell  ? 

Why  will  men  carry  and  cherish  that  in  their  bosom 
which  at  the  last  stingeth  like  an  adder? 

No  man  is  safe.  I  have  seen  those  at  whose  feet  I 
had  been  life-long  content  to  sit,  to  learn  both  wisdom 
and  piety,  drawn  gently  on,  tempted,  bound,  enslaved ; 
men  not  long  before  eminent  for  worth  and  goodness, 
now  secret  tipplers,  or  drunkards  but  ill  disguised ;  once 
honored  to  bear  the  message  of  "  good  news  "  to  many, 
and  now  themselves  poor  "  castaways." 

This  "  luxury" — this  "  something  separate"  from  food 
— this  "dainty" — this  thing  "delightful  to  the  senses" 
—  is  not  safe  for  me  —  whatsoever  and  whosoever  I  am. 
I  way  remain  its  master;  but  it  may  become  mine :  arid 
if  it  do,  I  am  lost  —  or  at  least  in  utmost  peril.  Why 
should  the  oak  court  the  embrace  of  the  ivy,  if  it  know 
or  even  fear  that  the  sycophant,  as  it  creeps  and  clings 
around,  will  in  the  end  suck  all  its  sap,  and  leave  it  to 
12 


178  alcohol:    ITS    POWER. 

die  a  faded,  withered  thing,  fit  only  as  a  fagot  for  the 
burning  ? 

And  why  should  men,  themselves  safe  —  for  the  time 
— lead  others  on  by  the  most  powerful  of  all  teaching — 
namely,  example  —  to  dalliance  with  this  drug,  when 
they  see  thousands  so  led  perishing  miserably  and  for 
ever? 

Let  honest  men  but  think  —  opening  their  intellects 
as  well  as  their  hearts ;  and  surely  they  will  be  forced  to 
abstain  from  what  is  certainly  something  more  —  far 
more  —  than  a  mere  "  appearance  of  evil."  There  is  a 
time  for  its  use.  Let  its  use  be  limited  to  that  time. 
All  else  is  abuse ;  for  which  there  is  no  time  and  no  tole- 
rance. It  is  then  a  positive  evil,  and  of  the  highest  and 
most  heinous  kind. 

Let  men  learn  its  power,  and  act  wisely  on  that  learn- 
ing. Let  them  know  and  remember  that  it  has  vast 
power  as  a  poison — to  be  dreaded  by  all  who  would  live 
and  let  live ;  great  power  too  as  a  medicine  —  in  small 
quantities,  and  skilfully  employed;  much  power  as  a 
luxury,  but  of  a  most  perilous  kind ;  no  power  as  food, 
save  only  in  occasional  emergencies )  no  power  to  sustain 
or  even  refresh  a  man,  under  either  bodily  or  mental 
labor — 'and  let  them  abolish  the  term  "  refreshments"  in 
its  ordinary  alcoholic  sense,  as  a  most  foul  and  fallacious 
misnomer ;  no  power  to  afford  continued  and  systematic 
protection  against  extremes  of  either  cold  or  heat;  no 
power  to  avert  disease,  but  power  almost  infinite  to  pro- 
duce it ;  no  power  to  cherish  old  age,  but  only  to  cripple 
and  confound  it;  no  power  to  prolong  life,  but  power 
to  both  hasten  and  embitter  its  ending;  no  power  to 


CONCLUSION.  179 

strengthen  the  morals  or  the  mind,  but  power  to  debase, 
if  not  destroy  the  one,  and  weaken  and  pervert  the 
other ;  a  power  to  produce  crime,  and  minister  to  vice, 
beyond  what  pen  can  write  or  tongue  can  tell  — "  sen- 
sual, devilish." 

Let  them  know  such  power  —  and /ear  it. 

The  proper  PLACE  of  alcohol  for  man's  use  is  as  a 
medicine.  Let  men  put  and  keep  it  there.  Its  power 
then  is  both  great  and  good. 

Let  them  regard  it  no  longer  as  an  article  of  ordinary 
diet;  for  wholesome  real  food  it  is  not,  and  power  as 
such  it  has  none. 

Let  them  beware  of  it  as  a  luxury;  for  though  its 
power  as  such  be  great,  it  is  often  grievous.  And, 
looking  to  the  exigencies  of  the  present  time,  let  them 
resolve,  in  God's  strength  and  in  God's  name,  to  deny 
themselves  what  to  the  man  in  health  is  but  a  doubtful 
luxury  at  the  best,  and  is  shown  by  sad  experience 
rather  to  become  "  a  mockery,  a  delusion,  and  a  snare.'* 
"  Wine  is  a  mocker,  strong  drink  is  raging ;  and  whoso- 
ever is  deceived  thereby  is  not  wise." 


^^^^ 


DATE  DUE  SLIP 

CNIVEKSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  MEDICAL  SCHOOL  LIBEASV 

THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW 


APK : 


1936 

,  m 

.  1942 


!         U'' 


.9tiL-2i§^ 


ed 

/a 


Hb^d 


